TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Charlie Baker]

A lovely tribute.

TCM Remembers Max Von Sydow

 

[Irlandesa]

On 2/29/2020 at 1:05 PM, ruby24 said:

I watched The Talk of the Town (1942) last night. What a great movie! This one deserves to be better known. It was smart, clever and totally unpredictable in that you couldn't quite see where it was going after a while. Loved it. Funny that they filmed two endings and let the test audiences choose which one it would be.

They chose wrong.

[mariah23]

The TCM Classic Film Festival has been cancelled.

[Charlie Baker]

Forgive me a little indulgence here, Ben M says in his host promo that TCM provides a visit to the past for a couple hours every night and it's a pretty nice place to get away to and visit.  That was driven home for me (really my TCM devotion never felt like it came from that feeling before) when, despite everything, I got a dose of carefree escapism the other night with It's Love Again, a British musical from 1936. It was the first Jessie Matthews film I had ever seen.

It's lighter than air, silly but never provoking an eye roll, musical comedy tale of an aspiring singer/actress/dancer who assumes a fictional identity to help out her potential boy friend, a struggling gossip columnist. Under that identity, she becomes a celebrity and a theater star.  The songs are catchy. Robert Young, the only American in the cast, is charming as the boyfriend. (For a moment I thought he was actually going to show he could dance, but no, just a few steps before he let Ms. M. take over.)

And she did, she was a good singer and a fine dancer and had just the right touch for this sort of light comedy acting-wise.  Dave Karger and Michael Feinstein mentioned in the outro that she came close to being cast opposite Fred Astaire in A Damsel in Distress, in the part Joan Fontaine played. Which would have been her American film debut. 

This might be a little theater-wonkish for this forum, but I remember reading years ago that the one-time wife of Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Sarah Brightman, wanted to play Jessie Matthews on stage or in a film.  For sure there was a strong physical resemblance, and I think Ms. B, could have done it.

SB on the left, JM on the right

 

[Rinaldo]

Yes, what a shame that the casting of Jessie Matthews in A Damsel in Distress didn't happen. A pairing with her and Fred Astaire is something to dream about (and the movie, as filmed, certainly didn't do Joan Fontaine any favors), and surely the script and songs would have been reconceived to allow her plenty of dancing: besides actually being able to do something during "Things Are Looking Up," she might well have been worked into the famous fun-house sequence, and the concluding "Nice Work If You Can Get It" dance could have been made into a duet. Astaire was unique, but Matthews was close to his level in terms of an eccentric personality that came to life most when expressing itself through dancing.

[Gemma Violet]

I just watched I Wake Up Screaming starring Victor Mature and Betty Grable and co-starring Laird Cregar and Carole Landis.  I wasn't familiar with either Cregar or Landis and was sorry to see they both died young in tragic circumstances:  Landis by suicide over her lover Rex Harrison refusing to leave his wife for her, and Cregar due to havoc on his system from taking amphetamines to lose 100 lbs. in his quest to become a leading man.  BTW, Cregar's voice reminded me so much of Vincent Price's.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Gemma Violet

[AuntiePam]

Did anyone else catch the Leslie Howard documentary?  If it comes on again, don't miss it.  I had no idea he was such a ladies' man, or that he was so popular before GWTW.  And I didn't know that he died fairly young, when his plane was shot down by Germans in WWII.  The doc was a nice balance of family and film, personal and professional film, photos, interviews. 

Enjoyed The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean with Paul Newman and a bunch of well-known characters in small parts.  Stacy Keach stood out as Bad Bob, as did Tony Perkins as a traveling preacher.  After reading the Wiki on Roy Bean, it looks like there's enough material for a mini-series. 

Rewatched David Lean's Great Expectations, an all-time favorite.  My only complaint is that the stunningly beautiful Jean Simmons couldn't have played the adult Estella.  Valerie Hobson is pretty enough, but she's not the beauty that Estella was supposed to be.  

The photography is gorgeous and the story moved along at a nice clip. 

One other complaint (and maybe I should read the book) is that the film has attorney Jagger spilling the beans on Estella's parentage, causing Estella's fiance to leave her.  Why would Jagger do that? 

[ruby24]

43 minutes ago, Gemma Violet said:

I just watched I Wake Up Screaming starring Victor Mature and Betty Grable and co-starring Laird Cregar and Carole Landis.  I wasn't familiar with either Cregar or Landis and was sorry to see they both died young in tragic circumstances:  Landis by suicide over her lover Rex Harrison refusing to leave his wife for her, and Cregar due to havoc on his system from taking amphetamines to lose 100 lbs. in his quest to become a leading man.  BTW, Cregar's voice reminded me so much of Vincent Price's.

I watched this last night too. Thought it was great, didn't see the twist ending coming at all.

[Rinaldo]

On 3/15/2020 at 1:49 PM, AuntiePam said:

Did anyone else catch the Leslie Howard documentary?  If it comes on again, don't miss it.  I had no idea he was such a ladies' man, or that he was so popular before GWTW.  And I didn't know that he died fairly young, when his plane was shot down by Germans in WWII.  The doc was a nice balance of family and film, personal and professional film, photos, interviews. 

I was very impressed with this documentary too. Admittedly I hadn't looked up much about his life before, but I did learn a lot from it, very absorbingly. It was interesting to see how clear-eyed his children were about their parents' characters, and how big a deal he was to movie audiences. (At the time, it must have seemed a coup for GWTW to secure him as "second man" when he was a star in his own right.) Also, I've been guilty in the past of dismissing his co-directing credit on Pygmalion as a token courtesy to flatter him and secure his services (helped by the way some Shaw books do say that Asquith did all the directing). But this made it clear that he was seriously acquiring the craft of film directing; if he had lived, perhaps he might have transitioned eventually into primarily being a director (as other actors have done).

On 3/15/2020 at 1:49 PM, AuntiePam said:

Rewatched David Lean's Great Expectations, an all-time favorite.  My only complaint is that the stunningly beautiful Jean Simmons couldn't have played the adult Estella.  Valerie Hobson is pretty enough, but she's not the beauty that Estella was supposed to be.  

That's my big complaint too. Valerie Hobson was in fact a considerable beauty in her own right (and was quite delightful in The Card, which TCM aired recently and hopefully will again), but in that "elegant remote English lady" manner; whereas Jean Simmons just exploded from the screen as the young Estella. It might have seemed strange for her to continue as an adult, while Herbert and Pip changed actors, but I think she could have carried it off. (It also occurred to me as I watched her be so Victorian and prim with her long smooth hair, that British filmdom missed a once-in-a-blue-moon chance by not casting her as Alice in Wonderland immediately.)

[ruby24]

I watched Carmen Jones (1954) for the first time. The cast was great but I didn't like the dubbing in this one. It was too obvious it wasn't a lot of these actors singing. Whenever Harry Belafonte's character sang I just didn't believe it was the same guy.

Dorothy Dandridge was fantastic though. Such a shame her career turned out the way it did.

[Milburn Stone]

On 3/15/2020 at 12:19 PM, Gemma Violet said:

I just watched I Wake Up Screaming starring Victor Mature and Betty Grable and co-starring Laird Cregar and Carole Landis.  I wasn't familiar with either Cregar or Landis and was sorry to see they both died young in tragic circumstances:  Landis by suicide over her lover Rex Harrison refusing to leave his wife for her, and Cregar due to havoc on his system from taking amphetamines to lose 100 lbs. in his quest to become a leading man.  BTW, Cregar's voice reminded me so much of Vincent Price's.

I think the saddest thing was Eddie Muller, in his outro, saying Cregar imagined himself the equivalent of Tyrone Power if only he lost weight. He could have lost 300 pounds and not achieved that goal. He wasn't a good looking man, and that voice (in a time of considerably less diversity than now) was not what America was looking for in its romantic male leads! We're talking serious delusion, a mind as apparently twisted as that of the characters he played. It's kind of scary.

I was oddly comforted by Muller saying he had no idea why this Fox movie used "Over the Rainbow" (MGM's property, which obviously they licensed for a fee), because this has always baffled me, but I assumed somebody knew. If it's a mystery to the dogged researcher Muller it really is a mystery. Fox had plenty of romantic tunes in its own catalog that it could have used. Actually the movie is pretty much destroyed by the scoring choice to put the weight of the whole enterprise on two tunes--this and Alfred Newman's "Street Scene." Neither one is right for the picture! Benny Herrmann conceivably could have found a tonality to make the picture make sense, but it ain't this.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, ruby24 said:

I watched Carmen Jones (1954) for the first time. The cast was great but I didn't like the dubbing in this one. It was too obvious it wasn't a lot of these actors singing. Whenever Harry Belafonte's character sang I just didn't believe it was the same guy.

Yes, the dubbing really hurts the character of Joe in this movie, partly because we know (even now, some will remember) what Harry Belafonte sounded like as a singer, and it isn't this. One interesting detail, though, is that his voice double, LaVern Hutcherson, was a bass-baritone who was one of the several Porgys in the popular tours of Gershwin's opera in the 1950s -- not the tenor required for this role. Yet he sounds pretty convincing in this music (ignoring the mismatch with Belafonte), and he did one of the stage tours of Carmen Jones too. He must have been a smart, resourceful singer to be able to function in either of two "legit" categories.

I do think the dubbing works much better with Dorothy Dandridge. Marilyn Horne has written about the long practice sessions they put in together to match Dandridge's speaking (and pop-singing) voice so that the total effect would be unified, and I think they succeeded impressively. By contrast, the Cindy Lou sounds unconvincing even though it's her own voice.

[VCRTracking]

On 3/15/2020 at 10:49 AM, AuntiePam said:

Did anyone else catch the Leslie Howard documentary?  If it comes on again, don't miss it.  I had no idea he was such a ladies' man, or that he was so popular before GWTW.  And I didn't know that he died fairly young, when his plane was shot down by Germans in WWII.  The doc was a nice balance of family and film, personal and professional film, photos, interviews. 

Michael Caine in his memoir said when he met Bette Davis in New York in 1966, she remarked how much he looked like Leslie Howard and said something like "Did you know he screwed every woman he was in a movie with except me? I told him I wasn't going to be another of his conquests!" Then she got a wistful look and added "Looking at you I wonder what difference it would make if I had been."

Edited March 17, 2020 by VCRTracking

[EtheltoTillie]

Agree with what everyone said about Great Expectations.  The first time I ever saw it, I was astonished when the different actress emerged at the end.  Very jarring.

I will have to catch that documentary on the TCM app.  Sounds interesting, and I missed that it was on so I failed to record it. 

Now I have to address the new-to-me mind-blowing crapfest that is "Too Young to Kiss."  What is this?  How has it managed to escape my notice for my 65 years when I am a superfan of The Major and the Minor (more below)?  I suppose it has been shown on TCM before, but I have never even heard of it.

I haven't even watched more than half of it yet but I have to write something here so see if any of you know anything about this.  What made me jump from TV to computer is that June Allyson's little-girl garb is almost an exact replica of Ginger Rogers's--especially the hat.  I will have to watch the rest before commenting further.

So as they explained at the beginning of the Major and the Minor, they were pairing the two movies for the obvious reason of plot device.  So why didn't they also show "You're Never Too Young," the Jerry Lewis/Dean Martin version of TMATM?  That movie has the neat trick of using Diana Lynn, the little sister from TMATM, as Dean Martin's love interest.

As for TMATM, I don't know how to explain my love for this movie.  It is an uncomfortable subject, made more so with time and changing understanding of child molestation, but I can't help myself.  It's so well done, tightly written, brilliantly acted and directed.  I do not share the same love for Wilder's other disguise comedy, Some Like It Hot, which is considered so great by so many (I lump it with Bringing Up Baby, which is similarly admired, yet disliked by me). Those two movies do not manage to show a romantic attraction between two people the way TMATM does.  Similarly, I love Grant and Hepburn in Holiday and Philadelphia Story, but not in BUB. 

I haven't seen TMATM discussed here before, so talk amongst yourselves.

[VCRTracking]

My 9th grade English Lit class watched the David Lean version of Great Expectations when we were assigned the book. Even then I couldn't believe how many coincidences were in it!

[Rinaldo]

Yeah, Dickens is not for the reader who balks at coincidence.

[Charlie Baker]

The Major and The Minor does not avoid the ick factor in 2020--you'd have to look at it through Ray Milland's character's bad eye and even then not completely block it--but I find much amusing about it. You are right about the chemistry between Milland and Ginger Rogers, @GussieK, and It's fun to see GR's real life mother Lela play her mother in this. Though of course I must differ about Some Like It Hot and Bringing Up Baby. 

As far as Too Young to Kiss is concerned, certainly it is a rip off of TMATM and it's not especially good.  Which it seems to me stresses the difference between the  MGM craftspeople who made it and as you say, Gussie, the brilliance of a Billy Wilder. (Though screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were capable of far better.) In the outro Ben M mentioned how popular Van Johnson and June Allyson were at the time, and that the modestly made movie was a hit due to their appeal.  Yep, the times were different.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I watched The Honeymoon Killers yesterday, without knowing anything about it.  Yikes!

I'm sure much can be said about it, but I was really taken by a lot of the camera angles and shot choices.  It is now my understanding that Martin Scorsese worked on it for about a week before getting fired, and that some of his work remained, but there's too much in there for him to be responsible for all of the interesting camera work.  So it was Leonard Kastle who's responsible, and he directed just this one movie.

That said, I'm on the fence about whether I like startlingly interesting direction.  I'm always intrigued and impressed by it, but then I think I prefer (or maybe should prefer?) less obvious work, since I like just being taken along for the ride when I watch a movie.

Regardless, it was obvious to me that someone was putting a lot of thought into what was on the screen.

I followed that with Breathless, which I'm not sure I've ever seen in its entirety.  It was a good companion piece, given the clear direction and editing that was taking place.  Plus within itself, it had all the jump cuts along with scenes of really long conversations (like the one in Patricia's apartment), which I found interesting.

And I can't help it.  I thought Michel's badgering Patricia to sleep with him was funny.  "Take off your top" in the middle of a completely unrelated conversation made me laugh out loud.

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by StatisticalOutlier

[ruby24]

I watched My Darling Clementine (1946) last night, and sad to say I wasn't as into it as I thought I'd be, considering the reputation this has as one of the greatest westerns, etc. I don't know what it was, I just didn't find it all that interesting. Henry Fonda was really good. I don't know, maybe it's just the Wyatt Earp story that I'm not into. 

My favorite John Ford movies continue to be Stagecoach, The Quiet Man, The Searchers and The Grapes of Wrath. I've been making my way through his cavalry trilogy and I haven't been crazy about those either, yet (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon- still need to see Rio Grande). I don't dislike them exactly, they're just...fine. 

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 2/25/2020 at 7:37 AM, Charlie Baker said:

No doubt in my mind that the first Demy/Legrand musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is much better than Young Girls of Rochefort.  Young Girls is weightless, what story there is doesn't cohere well, particularly in a bizarre subplot. But it's so pretty to look at, and so overall buoyant, with such an attractive cast, even if they mostly don't do their own singing. 

I absolutely loved the bar where a lot of the action took place.  And the dresses in the opening scene, with those reverse pleats.  Or actually, all of the clothes--they were so perfectly 1960s.

[catlover79]

Thank goodness for TCM On Demand. I've been on a big-time classic movie binge the past couple of days. The last one I watched was Susan Slade (1961) with Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue.

[Sharpie66]

Watching the last quarter of Wait Until Dark now. Alan Arkin is sooooo delightfully evil!! “Now all the children have gone to bed, we can talk.” And the way he just flutters that scarf around her head is so creepy. 

[ratgirlagogo]

15 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I watched The Honeymoon Killers yesterday, without knowing anything about it.  Yikes!

I have it on DVD and I watched it anyway.   It's really a mesmerizing film for me - Shirley Stoler is not just scary but unexpectedly sensually beautiful, and vulnerable, which makes her even scarier.  The black and white cinematography makes it seem like a documentary, or even an Investigation Discovery show.   Frightening in the same way as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer or Man Bites Dog.  It also reminded me of Female Trouble, esp. since TCM Underground ran that recently, and I'd think it must be a favorite of John Waters.   

 

15 hours ago, ruby24 said:

I watched My Darling Clementine (1946) last night, and sad to say I wasn't as into it as I thought I'd be, considering the reputation this has as one of the greatest westerns, etc. I don't know what it was, I just didn't find it all that interesting. Henry Fonda was really good. I don't know, maybe it's just the Wyatt Earp story that I'm not into. 

My favorite John Ford movies continue to be Stagecoach, The Quiet Man, The Searchers and The Grapes of Wrath. I've been making my way through his cavalry trilogy and I haven't been crazy about those either, yet (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon- still need to see Rio Grande). I don't dislike them exactly, they're just...fine. 

As somebody with a long love-hate relationship with John Ford, I feel you.  Wyatt Earp's story, in general, was kind of bullshit.  He lived long enough to write his autobiography in the 20's, IIRC, and to hang out and become friends with John Ford, Raoul Walsh etc. in Hollywood because he remained a handsome charismatic man even late in life, and obviously a tremendous storyteller.  But sheriffs then as now are hired to do the same thing the Sheriff of Nottingham was hired to do - collect debts for the county, not to drive thugs and gunslingers out of town.  Earp pocketed a percentage of all the tax debts etc. that he collected - thus his need for a gun and also the reason sheriffs are generally elected officials rather than appointees - because otherwise it's a plum job where you get to collect cash on every encounter.  I'd recommend Jeff Guinn's great book The Last Gunfight on this subject, or Casey Tefertiller's Wyatt Earp. 

Ford's cavalry Westerns are interesting to me for several reasons.  One, they are part of his attempt to work out his World War II  experiences (even as part of the film unit, he experienced shots fired, as they say, in anger).   Also, as I have said before, probably in this thread somewhere, Westerns always, always attempt to explore/explain American history in a way that no other American film genre does.  They always ask and answer the two questions, how did we become the United States? and do we DESERVE to be the United States?   The really fascinating thing about the cavalry films, is that they are about, you know, the cavalry.  Wagon trains and homesteaders and cowboys and gunmen were not enough to claim the West as part of the USA.  It required the force of the military and yet most Westerns don't deal with this.  (More recent spaghetti-inspired bullshit Westerns focus entirely on individual grudges and rivalries and revenge - which is why I can barely consider them Westerns.)  I prefer Stagecoach to any of the cavalry Westerns myself - but I'm so interested in what he's trying to do.

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by ratgirlagogo

[Luckylyn]

12 hours ago, catlover79 said:

Thank goodness for TCM On Demand. I've been on a big-time classic movie binge the past couple of days. The last one I watched was Susan Slade (1961) with Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue.

Susan Slade is a wonderful example of a serious movie that’s accidentally hilarious.

I acknowledge a huge soft spot for Troy Donahue.  He was a limited actor but I enjoy most of the melodramas he stared in especially Parrish and Rome Adventure.

[Suzn]

9 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

Susan Slade is a wonderful example of a serious movie that’s accidentally hilarious.

I acknowledge a huge soft spot for Troy Donahue.  He was a limited actor but I enjoy most of the melodramas he stared in especially Parrish and Rome Adventure.

Yes, there is a scene that should be tragic and it's so obviously fake that it is, as you write, hilarious.

[VCRTracking]

23 hours ago, Sharpie66 said:

Watching the last quarter of Wait Until Dark now. Alan Arkin is sooooo delightfully evil!! “Now all the children have gone to bed, we can talk.” And the way he just flutters that scarf around her head is so creepy. 

Second favorite "character actors menace Audrey Hepburn" movie. First would be CHARADE.

19 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

As somebody with a long love-hate relationship with John Ford, I feel you.  Wyatt Earp's story, in general, was kind of bullshit.  He lived long enough to write his autobiography in the 20's, IIRC, and to hang out and become friends with John Ford, Raoul Walsh etc. in Hollywood because he remained a handsome charismatic man even late in life, and obviously a tremendous storyteller.  But sheriffs then as now are hired to do the same thing the Sheriff of Nottingham was hired to do - collect debts for the county, not to drive thugs and gunslingers out of town.  Earp pocketed a percentage of all the tax debts etc. that he collected - thus his need for a gun and also the reason sheriffs are generally elected officials rather than appointees - because otherwise it's a plum job where you get to collect cash on every encounter.  I'd recommend Jeff Guinn's great book The Last Gunfight on this subject, or Casey Tefertiller's Wyatt Earp. 

Ford's cavalry Westerns are interesting to me for several reasons.  One, they are part of his attempt to work out his World War II  experiences (even as part of the film unit, he experienced shots fired, as they say, in anger).   Also, as I have said before, probably in this thread somewhere, Westerns always, always attempt to explore/explain American history in a way that no other American film genre does.  They always ask and answer the two questions, how did we become the United States? and do we DESERVE to be the United States?   The really fascinating thing about the cavalry films, is that they are about, you know, the cavalry.  Wagon trains and homesteaders and cowboys and gunmen were not enough to claim the West as part of the USA.  It required the force of the military and yet most Westerns don't deal with this.  (More recent spaghetti-inspired bullshit Westerns focus entirely on individual grudges and rivalries and revenge - which is why I can barely consider them Westerns.)  I prefer Stagecoach to any of the cavalry Westerns myself - but I'm so interested in what he's trying to do.

 

I always wonder if the character Wayne plays in the first cavalry movie FORT APACHE, is the same as the last RIO GRANDE. I like in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, John Agar's character isn't just mad the girl he likes is giving her attention to the rival Pernell(Harry Carey Jr.) who wants to marry her and leave the cavalry but also because Carey is a good officer. As Agar tells the girl Pernell is a "spoiled rich kid and the army is his only chance!"

Edited March 23, 2020 by VCRTracking

[Luckylyn]

I love Charade.  It’s a fun stylish suspense film that I always enjoy watching.  I heard Cary Grant was worried about the age difference between him and Audrey Hepburn, and he in the past had refused to be her love interest because of that.  He turned down Love in the Afternoon.  I’m so happy they got Grant for Charade.  I thought they had wonderful chemistry.  

I was not a fan of the remake The Truth About Charlie.   It was trying too hard to be stylish, and it felt strained rather than organic.   Casting bland Mark Whalberg in a role originated by charismatic Cary Grant was just ridiculous.   I did like Thandie Newton though. She’s always good.

[Milburn Stone]

4 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I love Charade.  It’s a fun stylish suspense film that I always enjoy watching.  I heard Cary Grant was worried about the age difference between him and Audrey Hepburn, and he in the past had refused to be her love interest because of that.  He turned down Love in the Afternoon.  I’m so happy they got Grant for Charade.  I thought they had wonderful chemistry.  

I think the story (IIRC) with Charade was that Grant said he would do the movie only on the condition that the Audrey Hepburn character pursue him, because it would be unseemly with the age difference for him to pursue her.

[Irlandesa]

5 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I love Charade.  It’s a fun stylish suspense film that I always enjoy watching.  I heard Cary Grant was worried about the age difference between him and Audrey Hepburn, and he in the past had refused to be her love interest because of that.  He turned down Love in the Afternoon.  

And he turned down Sabrina because of it, IIRC.  And that forever remains one of my "this hurts" could've beens.  Had Cary Grant played the Linus role instead of Bogart, that movie would have been perfect--a movie I'd watch over and over again. 

[VCRTracking]

It's a shame Grant was never in a Billy Wilder movie. The closest we got was Tony Curtis doing a Cary Grant impression in SOME LIKE IT HOT. 

As far as leading men closer to Hepburn's age, my favorite is Peter O'Toole in HOW TO STEAL A MILLION.

[ratgirlagogo]

11 hours ago, Luckylyn said:

I was not a fan of the remake The Truth About Charlie.

Aside from anything else, the fucking POSTER for the movie gave away a crucial plot point.

[Wiendish Fitch]

8 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

As far as leading men closer to Hepburn's age, my favorite is Peter O'Toole in HOW TO STEAL A MILLION.

Love How to Steal a Million. Peter O'Toole was the closest thing Audrey Hepburn ever had to competition in the pretty department. 😀 

[Rinaldo]

17 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

As far as leading men closer to Hepburn's age, my favorite is Peter O'Toole in HOW TO STEAL A MILLION.

That's a good choice. My own would be Albert Finney in Two for the Road. He was 7 years younger than she, and at the time the movie was released, the gap probably seemed wider because she had been a movie star so long already, whereas he was a relatively fresh face. Fortunately, at this distance in time that makes no difference, especially as the movie covers a substantial number of years. I've often gone on about how I love Two for the Road to distraction, and we're fortunate that the remake that was at one time publicized as "in the works" never happened. (Although Charade wasn't so lucky, the remake was forgotten the moment it appeared, so we don't need to worry about that either.)

As to Cary Grant never being in a Wilder film, maybe he knew best. Here's the writer Dan Callahan on the subject, from his first book about American screen acting:

Quote

Two years later, Tony Curtis mercilessly spoofed Grant’s vocal mannerisms and screen character in a set piece in Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot that suggested that new mores were starting to emerge to eclipse Grant’s sublime sexual indirection. Curtis’s Grant imitation claims that girls do nothing for him, so that Marilyn Monroe has to go into the most strenuous exertions to get his heterosexual libido back on track. As a rule in Grant’s films, women pursued him and he acted like a moving target, but Some Like It Hot bluntly brings that dynamic out of the closet. Wilder always wanted Grant to be in one of his movies and Grant always avoided that, and when you see Curtis’s imitation in Some Like It Hot, it’s clear why he did.

 

[Luckylyn]

18 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

And he turned down Sabrina because of it, IIRC.  And that forever remains one of my "this hurts" could've beens.  Had Cary Grant played the Linus role instead of Bogart, that movie would have been perfect--a movie I'd watch over and over again. 

Such a missed opportunity 

[AuntiePam]

But Tony Curtis says in a TCM interview/homage to Cary Grant that he always wanted to be like Cary Grant, and that he was channeling Grant in Some Like It Hot.  He didn't give the impression that he was spoofing -- spoofing implies disrespect. 

[VCRTracking]

5 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

But Tony Curtis says in a TCM interview/homage to Cary Grant that he always wanted to be like Cary Grant, and that he was channeling Grant in Some Like It Hot.  He didn't give the impression that he was spoofing -- spoofing implies disrespect. 

They did star together in OPERATION PETTICOAT the same year. I remember seeing Curtis years ago, probably for TCM talking about being a kid seeing Cary Grant as a submarine commander in a movie looking through a periscope and the thrill ofgetting to work with his idol as he looks through a periscope! 

Edited March 25, 2020 by VCRTracking

[Milburn Stone]

8 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

They did star together in OPERATION PETTICOAT the same year. I remember seeing Curtis years ago, probably for TCM talking about being a kid seeing Cary Grant as a submarine commander in a movie looking through a periscope and the thrill ofgetting to work with his idol as he looks through a periscope! 

That must have been Destination Tokyo, which was on the other night.

I didn't see much of it, just the comic-relief scene of Alan Hale getting a haircut. It wasn't half-bad, as comic-relief scenes go.

[Athena]

I think Cary Grant is with us on this one. After filming Charade he said, " All I want for Christmas is to make another movie with Audrey Hepburn." 

Grant was reportedly also offered the role of Higgins in My Fair Lady, and apparently he requested Hepburn as his co-star in Father Goose (1964).

Charade was my first Hepburn movie and it remains one of my favourite movies (possibly ever for sentimental reasons). I grew up watching Cary Grant on his Hitchcock movies, but there was something special about their chemistry in Charade too. 

[Growsonwalls]

The Humphrey-Hepburn anti-chemistry in Sabrina kind of kills that movie. Apparently it was that way in real life too -- Bogart did not like Hepburn, who was very open about the fact that she needed strong directorial guidance and a lot of takes to get things right. Bogart wanted Lauren Bacall for the part. Also didn't help that Hepburn and William Holden started a pretty torrid affair on set. 

 

[EtheltoTillie]

27 minutes ago, Growsonwalls said:

The Humphrey-Hepburn anti-chemistry in Sabrina kind of kills that movie. Apparently it was that way in real life too -- Bogart did not like Hepburn, who was very open about the fact that she needed strong directorial guidance and a lot of takes to get things right. Bogart wanted Lauren Bacall for the part. Also didn't help that Hepburn and William Holden started a pretty torrid affair on set. 

 

Call me crazy but I love Sabrina anyway. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

29 minutes ago, GussieK said:

Call me crazy but I love Sabrina anyway. 

Same here. 😊 

[EtheltoTillie]

22 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

But Tony Curtis says in a TCM interview/homage to Cary Grant that he always wanted to be like Cary Grant, and that he was channeling Grant in Some Like It Hot.  He didn't give the impression that he was spoofing -- spoofing implies disrespect. 

Some Like It Hot is on tonight.

[Rinaldo]

On 3/24/2020 at 7:50 PM, AuntiePam said:

spoofing implies disrespect. 

I don't think I agree at all. The best spoofs I know are motivated by affection and admiration. (One example that comes to mind is The Princess Bride, book and movie.)

[AuntiePam]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

I don't think I agree at all. The best spoofs I know are motivated by affection and admiration. (One example that comes to mind is The Princess Bride, book and movie.)

I may have made the wrong inference from the quote in Rinaldo's post from yesterday.  (I don't know where the quote came from.)  It sounded like Tony Curtis was making fun of Grant's mannerisms -- and then the quote about Grant not ever wanting to be in a Billy Wilder movie?  Well, it got me all confused.  Which isn't hard to do.  [smile]

So is imitation still the sincerest form of flattery, when the imitation results in what Curtis did to Grant in Some LIke It Hot?  I'm not so sure.  I thought the character was silly and unbelievable, but then I've never been a big fan of comedy.

[Rinaldo]

My own feeling is that Curtis may well have been (most likely was) imitating Grant out of admiration and his own deep knowledge of Grant's work. But he was also doing it at the suggestion of Billy Wilder, and Wilder could be a mordant SOB with motives of his own. (I admit that my admiration of Wilder's work is partial at best; undoubtedly he has some fine achievements to his credit, but there are other instances where I feel he either missed the tone he was aiming for, or he achieved it but I don't like it. I suppose the answer is that I'm not really in tune with him.)

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I don't think I agree at all. The best spoofs I know are motivated by affection and admiration. (One example that comes to mind is The Princess Bride, book and movie.)

How funny you mention this.  I had never seen The Princess Bride!!!!  Until yesterday, that is.  I just decided it was high time I watched it, and since we are all staying home and doing nothing, I was able to do it.  Loved it.  What wonderful writing and acting.  Carey Elwes really looked like Errol Flynn in the early fencing scenes.  Too bad his career went nowhere.  I had a real disconnect seeing the Mandy Patinkin of 33 years ago in comparison with the Saul Berenson of today's Homeland.   I am reminded that in those days I always found Mandy Patinkin and Kevin Kline to look alike, esp. since Kline played in the Pirates of Penzance.

[ratgirlagogo]

1 hour ago, AuntiePam said:

I've never been a big fan of comedy.

***RECORD SCRATCH*****

What???????

You don't like comedy of any kind?????  Please explain.

[VCRTracking]

9 hours ago, Athena said:

I think Cary Grant is with us on this one. After filming Charade he said, " All I want for Christmas is to make another movie with Audrey Hepburn." 

Grant was reportedly also offered the role of Higgins in My Fair Lady, and apparently he requested Hepburn as his co-star in Father Goose (1964).

Charade was my first Hepburn movie and it remains one of my favourite movies (possibly ever for sentimental reasons). I grew up watching Cary Grant on his Hitchcock movies, but there was something special about their chemistry in Charade too. 

I love when anyone does a Cary Grant impression, but Hepburn too? Awesome.

 

[EtheltoTillie]

That's pretty funny.  I grew up on the "Judy, Judy, Judy" school of Cary Grant impressions--on the Ed Sullivan show.  The Hepburn impersonation was very good.

[AuntiePam]

12 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

***RECORD SCRATCH*****

What???????

You don't like comedy of any kind?????  Please explain.

I'll qualify.  I don't like a lot of comedy.  The premise has to be somewhat believable, realistic.  Maybe that's why movies like Some Like It Hot leave me cold -- I can't buy it.  Nobody's gonna believe that Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are women.  Tony Curtis was pretty, but he wasn't that pretty.