TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

15 hours ago, GussieK said:

The casting of people from different Asian groups might be somewhat controversial today....

Would it? Was this stated in the surrounding commentary? (This is a genuine question, I'm not being sarcastic or anything like that.) If so I'm somewhat surprised, but I know this is a shifting target as time passes. In the recent Broadway revival of The King and I, the many Thai (or Siamese, in the nineteenth-century story) characters were played by actors of many Asian origins, and the King himself was played first by a Japanese movie star, then by American actors of Filipino and Korean ancestry.

In the case of Flower Drum Song, we can legitimately regret the casting of Juanita Hall, who was deemed here and in South Pacific to be acceptable as Asian despite being of African-American parentage. (Though I'm not without sympathy for her ability to get cast at all, at that date.)

Quote

My big quibble is that poor Helen the seamstress is jilted by Ta.  He comes off as a real heel, and I didn’t buy his redemption nor Mai Li’s overlooking it in the end. This is a real plot hole. I didn’t remember this plot element from past viewings. Any comments?  

This has always been a real problem with the show. The Helen character is just left hanging, after being set up as important. I guess we're supposed to have forgotten her by the end, but I never do.

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

Special credit must be given to Mako, who was outstanding. 

Mako is always great, isn't he? Even in negligible roles like the ones he got on M*A*S*H or Magnum. I'm delighted I caught his performance in Pacific Overtures on Broadway.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Rinaldo

[Milburn Stone]

2 hours ago, GussieK said:

But I really remember the movie being derided at the time, and I remembered reading the Mad Magazine parody, which I managed to find with Google! http://www.thesandpebbles.com/mad_magazine/mad_sandpebbles.htm

I also knew the haunting theme music (by the great Jerry Goldsmith), so I guess I must have heard it played on the radio.

Thanks for that Mad link, @GussieK! Mad was so great then.

Goldsmith's main theme got a lyric by Leslie Bricusse and became the song "And We Were Lovers." Like you, I remember it on the radio. The version that sticks in my mind is the one by Matt Monro.

[EtheltoTillie]

3 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Thanks for that Mad link, @GussieK! Mad was so great then.

Goldsmith's main theme got a lyric by Leslie Bricusse and became the song "And We Were Lovers." Like you, I remember it on the radio. The version that sticks in my mind is the one by Matt Monro.

Yes, Mad was so much fun. 

I think I remember the music mostly as instrumentals.  I never even heard of Matt Monro before.  I found an Andy Williams version. 

[VCRTracking]

20 hours ago, GussieK said:

Yes, Mad was so much fun. 

I think I remember the music mostly as instrumentals.  I never even heard of Matt Monro before.  

He sang the title song to BORN FREE and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. My favorite song of his is "On Days Like These" from the opening credits of the original THE ITALIAN JOB.

ETA:

I remember seeing the movie years ago on PBS. The part that I'll always remember is toward the end

Spoiler

a grateful Chinese peasant wants to give Van Johnson a pair of shoes but then feels guilty and cries when he sees Johnson had just had one of his legs amputated above the knee.

It's safe to say this was a much better movie about the Dolittle raid than seen in the last act of Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor!

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by VCRTracking

[VCRTracking]

 

 

[EtheltoTillie]

Oh, well, here I am watching The Best Years of Our Lives again. Missed the first hour but have watched so many times it doesn’t matter. Once I start I can’t stop. Every minute is perfection. And I always wanted Myrna Loy’s bathrobe. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, GussieK said:

Oh, well, here I am watching The Best Years of Our Lives again. Missed the first hour but have watched so many times it doesn’t matter. Once I start I can’t stop. Every minute is perfection. And I always wanted Myrna Loy’s bathrobe. 

Dammit, William Wyler could do no wrong! The Best Years of Our Lives should be in the vein of the sappy, schmaltzy, manipulative Oscar bait crap we've gotten in the last 20 or 30 years, but Wyler makes it genuinely heartfelt and-gasp!-entertaining! Everyone is vulnerable and human, and you truly care about them every step of the way. 

Same goes for Mrs. Miniver. Yes, I like Mrs. Miniver, and I will defend Mrs. Miniver to the very last.

 

[EtheltoTillie]

10 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Dammit, William Wyler could do no wrong! The Best Years of Our Lives should be in the vein of the sappy, schmaltzy, manipulative Oscar bait crap we've gotten in the last 20 or 30 years, but Wyler makes it genuinely heartfelt and-gasp!-entertaining! Everyone is vulnerable and human, and you truly care about them every step of the way. 

Same goes for Mrs. Miniver. Yes, I like Mrs. Miniver, and I will defend Mrs. Miniver to the very last.

 

Sappy shmaltzy etc.:  how apt. For example, Sunday night they were showing Titanic on CBS. I never liked the movie when it first came out, but I wasn’t sure if that was more owing to my extreme fear of being trapped in a sinking ship. I was traumatized by The Poseidon Adventure in 1973 and haven’t been the same since.  But we tuned in for a bit, as my husband had never seen it. We found it unwatchable. It seemed so staged and phony and so full of itself. And that was before I was prompted to make the comparison with TBYOOL. 

[VCRTracking]

12 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Dammit, William Wyler could do no wrong! The Best Years of Our Lives should be in the vein of the sappy, schmaltzy, manipulative Oscar bait crap we've gotten in the last 20 or 30 years, but Wyler makes it genuinely heartfelt and-gasp!-entertaining! Everyone is vulnerable and human, and you truly care about them every step of the way. 

Director Sidney Lumet who was an army radar repairman in Burma during the war said he and other returning servicemen expected to see the usual Hollywood bullshit and we're instead surprised how much the movie got right about the experience of coming home. It didn't sugarcoat anything.

I love in the movie Teresa Wright, the quintessential good girl being like "I'm going to steal a married man from his wife!" and we're rooting for her to do it!

[Wiendish Fitch]

48 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

I love in the movie Teresa Wright, the quintessential good girl being like "I'm going to steal a married man from his wife!" and we're rooting for her to do it!

When the wife in question is played by Virginia "Bland as" Mayo, it's hard for me not to endorse Teresa Wright's home-wrecking scheme.

I also love how Myrna Loy defends herself against Wright's accusation of having never had troubles in her own marriage, and gives the most graceful, truthful summation of even the best marriages to Fredric March: 

 "We never had any trouble." How many times have I told you I hated you and believed it in my heart? How many times have you said you were sick and tired of me; that we were all washed up? How many times have we had to fall in love all over again?

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 5/15/2020 at 1:50 PM, tennisgurl said:

Really excited to see The General coming up soon, I have been on a bit of a silent movie kick lately.

There's a scene in The General where Keaton wants to spy on some people through a window, and he runs up to it and hits the ground and somehow slithers up the wall vertically.  I've watched it over and over again, and still don't know how he did it.

The General also figures into a lifetime highlight of mine--the first time I saw it was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, with accompaniment on the organ in there.  It was magical.

 

On 5/16/2020 at 11:11 AM, tennisgurl said:

City Lights was so good, I cant believe that its taken me this long to see it! Probably because I am not a huge Chaplin fan (Team Keaton!) but that was just so delightful.

I've always been solidly Team Keaton, and was once talking to my mother about how I just didn't get the appeal of Charlie Chaplin, and she basically said it might be hard to understand unless you lived through it, and experienced how much he meant to people.  So I approached his movies with a more open mind, and have to say that I do love City Lights and The Gold Rush.

Still awaiting a turnaround on Harold Lloyd.

 

On 5/23/2020 at 9:35 AM, Milburn Stone said:

(Kind of an ingenious plot, if you ask me, by Buck Henry--and some beautifully staged sight gags by Bogdanovich.)

I swear, that chase scene in the Volkswagen through the streets of San Francisco is just as accomplished as the more famous one in Bullitt.  A lot funnier, too.

 

I posted this a couple of years ago, and I'll repeat it now, since Our Vines Have Tender Grapes is showing on Thursday night, and I think it would be a very nice way to spend a couple of hours as our world crashes down upon us:

Quote

I watched it at random a while back, and found it so sweet and, uh, tender.  It's just the story of a family living on a farm in Wisconsin--Edward G. Robinson and Agnes Moorehead are Margaret O'Brien's parents.  Not much happens, but it's the sort of movie where I just enjoy being in these people's presence.  I'm not a huge consumer of Edward G. Robinson and Agnes Moorehead, and they wouldn't be at the top of my list of people to play ideal parents, but they were lovely here.

 

[Milburn Stone]

HBO Max started today. I was aware they were promising some TCM content, but I was skeptical. However, they came through. There's a whole TCM "subsection" of the portal, and that subsection currently includes 450 films!

If you already get HBO from your cable or dish provider, the HBO Max portal is free.

If not, my initial impression of the ton of content on offer is that it would be worth the $14.99/mo. they're charging.

It also works much better than Watch TCM. It was obviously created by designers and coders who knew what they were doing (in sharp contrast to those of TCM), and is heavily capitalized.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Milburn Stone

[WendyCR72]

3 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

If not, my initial impression of the ton of content on offer is that it would be worth the $14.99/mo. they're charging.

That's right. However, if you had cut the cord prior and planned to subscribe to this stand-alone service, one big problem if you watch via Roku or Amazon Fire: Neither side has yet come to an agreement to allow HBO Max on their platforms. And there is no time frame as for when there will be.

However, if you are one of those unlucky people as I am, you can access content and watch on the HBO Max site itself. Not optimal, but it is what it is.

[meowmommy]

35 minutes ago, WendyCR72 said:

That's right. However, if you had cut the cord prior and planned to subscribe to this stand-alone service, one big problem if you watch via Roku or Amazon Fire: Neither side has yet come to an agreement to allow HBO Max on their platforms. And there is no time frame as for when there will be.

However, if you are one of those unlucky people as I am, you can access content and watch on the HBO Max site itself. Not optimal, but it is what it is.

If you have a tablet, the apps rolled out today and you can sign in and watch HBO Max there, too.

All our TVs are Roku, but I signed up yesterday at the last minute, just to lock in the 12 month discounted price of $11.99 per month.  At least we can still watch HBO Now on the Roku until they get their shit together. 

And my daughter likes watching movies on her tablet more than she does on the TV, so it won't be a problem.  I just showed her the TCM lineup on HBO Max and she was very excited.  And about all the Harry Potter movies being available.

[Milburn Stone]

Upon spending a little more time looking at the TCM section of HBO Max...I hope for improvement in one respect. It's great that there are upwards of 450 films in it, but they seem by and large to be the "recognized classics." I guess that makes sense for the launch, to appeal to the widest possible audience. But one thing Watch TCM does that HBO Max isn't doing yet is to make available pretty much everything that TCM has been airing lately--the good, the bad, the idiosyncratic, the offbeat, the just plain weird. I think most people who love TCM love it because of its scope. So...as the weeks go by, I hope HBO Max's TCM section will be offering more of that sort of thing. I would love to be able to delete Watch TCM once and for all.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Milburn Stone

[meowmommy]

3 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

So...as the weeks go by, I hope HBO Max's TCM section will be offering more of that sort of thing. I would love to be able to delete Watch TCM once and for all.

I think what will be different is that the TCM app cycles through the recent offerings very quickly.  They have short expiration dates, and sometimes a given movie will even expire from the app before the stated expiration date.  I hope that the HBO TCM movies will stay, more or less indefinitely.

And that they get the damn issues worked out with Roku!  I really, really don't want to watch on my iPad.

[Milburn Stone]

One more word about the TCM section on HBO Max. (For now.) It's becoming clearer to me that it's simply the branding that AT&T/Warner has chosen to give to any non-current film that AT&T/Warner has in its library. I'm not even sure all of them have aired on TCM. And a lot of them aren't very old. And non-new, non-DC films (as far as I've been able to discover) exist nowhere else on the portal. It's pretty much like someone in Burbank said, "Hey, TCM, we know nothing about films older than 2019. You know this stuff, right? Go through our back catalog and pick out a bunch of stuff we can brand as TCM, so we can say we have library content." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It might have not even been anyone at TCM they asked. It might have been George Feltenstein, the one remaining exec at Warner Bros. who knows what they own.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Milburn Stone

[ratgirlagogo]

On 5/30/2020 at 10:58 AM, Milburn Stone said:

One more word about the TCM section on HBO Max. (For now.) It's becoming clearer to me that it's simply the branding that AT&T/Warner has chosen to give to any non-current film that AT&T/Warner has in its library.

And geez, that's not depressing at all.  😭

The weirdest thing about writing this post was searching the Emoji Pantry and I'm still not sure I picked the right one. 😞

[EtheltoTillie]

On 5/29/2020 at 2:12 PM, meowmommy said:

I think what will be different is that the TCM app cycles through the recent offerings very quickly.  They have short expiration dates, and sometimes a given movie will even expire from the app before the stated expiration date.  I hope that the HBO TCM movies will stay, more or less indefinitely.

And that they get the damn issues worked out with Roku!  I really, really don't want to watch on my iPad.

We figured out how to show it on the TV with Chromecast from the iPad.   

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 5/30/2020 at 8:58 AM, Milburn Stone said:

And non-new, non-DC films (as far as I've been able to discover) exist nowhere else on the portal.

I hate to have to ask, but what are "DC films"?  I'm just now learning that there's a DC vs. Marvel "thing" in superheros or comics or something, but I don't think that's what you're referring to.

 

Quote

It's pretty much like someone in Burbank said, "Hey, TCM, we know nothing about films older than 2019. You know this stuff, right? Go through our back catalog and pick out a bunch of stuff we can brand as TCM, so we can say we have library content." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I think there's something wrong with it if it means they're using "TCM" only as a synonym for "old."

Edited June 5, 2020 by StatisticalOutlier

[Guest]

On 5/30/2020 at 7:58 AM, Milburn Stone said:

One more word about the TCM section on HBO Max. (For now.) It's becoming clearer to me that it's simply the branding that AT&T/Warner has chosen to give to any non-current film that AT&T/Warner has in its library. I'm not even sure all of them have aired on TCM. And a lot of them aren't very old. And non-new, non-DC films (as far as I've been able to discover) exist nowhere else on the portal. 

They’re in the HBO section. There is considerable crossover between the HBO and TCM sections. It looks to me like the “specially curated” part is many of the must see movies from TCM combined with part of the Criterion collection. Then they pulled anything from the HBO section that may have aired on TCM at one point to make it the section appear larger. 
 

For now I’m happy with it because many of my absolute favorites are there but I really hope the add more even if the rotate movies out. 

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I hate to have to ask, but what are "DC films"?  I'm just now learning that there's a DC vs. Marvel "thing" in superheros or comics or something, but I don't think that's what you're referring to.

I’m pretty sure it was a reference to DC comic movies. They have their own section in HBO Max. 

[VCRTracking]

They're airing D-Day, The Sixth of June tomorrow. Never seen it but I have seen The Longest Day a bunch of times. One of my favorite things about the movie is out of that entire all star cast the person with the highest kill count is Paul Anka!

[Rinaldo]

In the interest of clearing out the DVR, I watched Sylvia Scarlett for the first time last night. It was a flop in its day, and it would be nice to find that this collaboration of George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, and Cary Grant is a neglected masterpiece. Indeed, it's not hard to find essays online that say exactly that: that it challenges gender norms (Hepburn spends much of the movie disguised as a boy, with both Grant and Brian Aherne feeling ambiguous attractions to him/her), chooses an episodic-picarasque structure, mixes genres, etc.

But as far as I can see, it's just kind of a mess. I don't mind mixing of genres if well done (and if each genre works on its own terms), but this mindless hopping among Dickensian beginnings, heist, musical, commedia dell'arte, pastoral, romantic comedy, tragedy, and perfunctory wrap-up just suggests people who don't know what to do next and willing to try any old thing. It's said that Hepburn lost confidence in it as they were filming, and I think her instincts were right. 

Still, it's an oddity worth seeing (by those interested in such things) for its place in movie history and in the careers of its three main participants. If it hurt Hepburn and Cukor for a while, it had a positive effect for Grant. He can be seen assembling the elements of a loose, irreverent star persona here, and I can imagine being a moviegoer at the time and wondering what he might do next.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 6/6/2020 at 7:28 AM, Rinaldo said:

In the interest of clearing out the DVR, I watched Sylvia Scarlett for the first time last night. It was a flop in its day, and it would be nice to find that this collaboration of George Cukor, Katharine Hepburn, and Cary Grant is a neglected masterpiece. Indeed, it's not hard to find essays online that say exactly that: that it challenges gender norms (Hepburn spends much of the movie disguised as a boy, with both Grant and Brian Aherne feeling ambiguous attractions to him/her), chooses an episodic-picarasque structure, mixes genres, etc.

But as far as I can see, it's just kind of a mess. I don't mind mixing of genres if well done (and if each genre works on its own terms), but this mindless hopping among Dickensian beginnings, heist, musical, commedia dell'arte, pastoral, romantic comedy, tragedy, and perfunctory wrap-up just suggests people who don't know what to do next and willing to try any old thing. It's said that Hepburn lost confidence in it as they were filming, and I think her instincts were right. 

Still, it's an oddity worth seeing (by those interested in such things) for its place in movie history and in the careers of its three main participants. If it hurt Hepburn and Cukor for a while, it had a positive effect for Grant. He can be seen assembling the elements of a loose, irreverent star persona here, and I can imagine being a moviegoer at the time and wondering what he might do next.

I realize I’ve never seen this. I will have to try it. I love Holiday and The Philadelphia Story.  Would be interested to see this precursor. I tried watching Bringing Up Baby (yes I know it’s not Cukor) again a week or so ago, and I couldn’t make it past 10 minutes. It’s just so irritating. Katharine Hepburn’s character is so awful. 

Edited June 9, 2020 by GussieK

[Bastet]

I found Sylvia Scarlett an interesting movie, and I mean that in both the genuine compliment and sarcastic ways.  One I'd have never watched if not for Katharine Hepburn, but she's one of the handful of actors I'll watch in anything if it's placed in front of me, and I particularly love Hepburn/Grant pairings (she's my favorite of his recurring on-screen partners).  It has been years since I last saw it, so I don't remember much beyond a general appreciation of dismantling and questioning gender norms, a general OMG, what is this movie even trying to be? confusion, and that Hepburn and Grant play off each other well in their first collaboration. 

An intriguing idea, but a really weird execution.  I think I saw it twice, the first time not being in its entirety, and kept a recording of it many years ago, but I've never pulled that disc out for a re-watch. 

[Rinaldo]

19 hours ago, Bastet said:

Hepburn and Grant play off each other well in their first collaboration. 

They do, but let me add a caveat for anyone who's never seen it and wants to try it on their account: they're not really a couple in this movie. They do have scenes together, they're part of the merry band of miscreants, they even have the scene (startling if one knows the period in film) in which Grant looks forward to their sharing a bed because the "boy" will make a nice little hot-water bottle... but the plot doesn't pair them together romantically, they both end up elsewhere. (At this late date I don't think I'm spoiling anything, especially as the plot, what little there is of it, isn't about suspense.)

Edited June 9, 2020 by Rinaldo

[Rinaldo]

I had to watch Dodsworth again this time around, despite having discovered it just last summer and rewatched it then. What a great movie, deservedly a favorite of Robert Osborne and indeed apparently anyone who introduces it on TCM. A good start in Sidney Howard's dramatization of Sinclair Lewis's novel, impeccably directed by William Wyler, with ideal design, editing and cinematography, and tip-top acting. Among the latter, with all respect to superb contributions from Maria Ouspenskaya, David Niven, Odette Myrtil, Ruth Chatterton, and others, I want to especially single out Walter Huston and Mary Astor, who are not only perfectly in character but seem completely unaffected and real and alive, in a way that is impervious to changing tastes in acting styles. Likewise the movie's theme of discovering who one is (and who one's partner is), even relatively late in life, feels remarkably timeless. Bravos all round. 

[Suzn]

On 6/11/2020 at 10:00 AM, Rinaldo said:

I had to watch Dodsworth again this time around, despite having discovered it just last summer and rewatched it then. What a great movie, deservedly a favorite of Robert Osborne and indeed apparently anyone who introduces it on TCM. A good start in Sidney Howard's dramatization of Sinclair Lewis's novel, impeccably directed by William Wyler, with ideal design, editing and cinematography, and tip-top acting. Among the latter, with all respect to superb contributions from Maria Ouspenskaya, David Niven, Odette Myrtil, Ruth Chatterton, and others, I want to especially single out Walter Huston and Mary Astor, who are not only perfectly in character but seem completely unaffected and real and alive, in a way that is impervious to changing tastes in acting styles. Likewise the movie's theme of discovering who one is (and who one's partner is), even relatively late in life, feels remarkably timeless. Bravos all round. 

I discovered Dodsworth only a few years ago and I love it.  It quickly became one of my favorites movies. It inspired me to read the book and I find the movie superior to the source.  The three leads are extraordinary and inhabit their characters so completely.  Walter Huston was the perfect balance of blundering at times and so sensitive and graceful at others.  Ruth Chatterton was a new discovery - I was sad to find that it was near the end of her movie career.  She was able to be selfish and self-centered and yet have my sympathy in many ways.  Mary Astor was luminous.  The actors do make the movie but the dialogue stands out and is memorable - Walter Huston final words to Ruth Chatterton are exceptional.

[Rinaldo]

On 6/12/2020 at 1:16 PM, Suzn said:

It inspired me to read the book and I find the movie superior to the source.

I would hesitate to say that -- the book is great too -- but I have to salute Sidney Howard for a really masterful dramatic adaptation. I've tracked down the published play, and it begins with a long introduction from Sinclair Lewis, praising the way his novel (much of it internal, in Sam Dodsworth's train of thought) was turned into something that could reach an audience through words and actions. He pointed out that the way the book introduces Mary Astor's character 3/4 of the way through would never work in a dramatic medium; she has to be threaded back through the narrative, glimpsed at an early point. And it's noteworthy that most of the lines we remember ("My dear, you're almost certain to" or Sam's last words to Fran that you mentioned) are contributions from Howard (with Lewis's collaboration and approval).

On 6/12/2020 at 1:16 PM, Suzn said:

Ruth Chatterton was a new discovery - I was sad to find that it was near the end of her movie career.  She was able to be selfish and self-centered and yet have my sympathy in many ways. 

That seems to be a contribution from William Wyler. Chatterton wanted to play her character as an unsympathetic witch, and Wyler got her to play Fran from her own point of view, an amiable woman at the moment when she's worrying that she might have missed her chances in life, and consequently insecure and lashing out. (Mary Astor, who became close to Chatterton, speculated that this might have cut uncomfortably close to the bone for her. And in fact, which of us can't relate to that, at some point in our lives?)

Edited June 16, 2020 by Rinaldo

[EtheltoTillie]

Very good comments on Dodsworth. On this recommendation I caught it a couple of days ago. I had not read the book. It was a wonderful film with complex characterizations and great acting by the three leads. My first thought was whoever thinks about Sinclair Lewis anymore?  But he won the Nobel Prize!  

[Milburn Stone]

18 hours ago, GussieK said:

Very good comments on Dodsworth. On this recommendation I caught it a couple of days ago. I had not read the book. It was a wonderful film with complex characterizations and great acting by the three leads. My first thought was whoever thinks about Sinclair Lewis anymore?  But he won the Nobel Prize!  

I think about Sinclair Lewis because a couple years ago our book club read It Can't Happen Here, which has more application with every passing day.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Milburn Stone

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 6/16/2020 at 9:59 AM, Rinaldo said:

That seems to be a contribution from William Wyler. Chatterton wanted to play her character as an unsympathetic witch, and Wyler got her to play Fran from her own point of view, an amiable woman at the moment when she's worrying that she might have missed her chances in life, and consequently insecure and lashing out.

I think I'll try a re-watch.  Mostly I remember hating it, and I think it was because I just could not understand why Dodsworth stayed with her.  Maybe I was immune to amiability that day.

Way upthread, we were talking about movies set in NYC, and I knew of one that had a memorable car chase and other scenes of NYC, but couldn't remember the name.  It's Side Street, directed by Anthony Mann, and TCM is showing it early Friday morning.

[Rinaldo]

40 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

Mostly I remember hating it, and I think it was because I just could not understand why Dodsworth stayed with her.  Maybe I was immune to amiability that day.

Well, we catch Fran as the amiability is just starting to wear thin. But they have 20 good years of marriage behind them, and I wouldn't think that one gives that up in a flash; even if things are getting a bit rough right now. Remember, we see a year or less of their lives. It doesn't seem so remarkable to me that he sticks with the status quo for a while, until she outright says she wants to marry someone else. And there are lots of nuances along the way (I oversimplified with "amiability" for instance; but there are plenty of moments where we see why their marriage used to work, even if it's hitting some trouble now).

Thanks for the Side Street recommendation. I'll mark it for recording.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Rinaldo

[meowmommy]

5 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I think about Sinclair Lewis because a couple years ago our book club read It Can't Happen Here, which has more application with every passing day.

In high school, I took an elective English class called American Nobel Prize Winners.  At the time (1973), we had six Americans who'd won the prize for literature, so we were assigned to read one book from each author.

The Sinclair Lewis book was Arrowsmith.  About a country doctor who really just wants to stamp out infectious disease, but is stymied by bureaucrats and closed minds every step of the way, including during a plague epidemic.  Oddly, I was re-reading it at the beginning of this year, before the pandemic became such huge news, and now, of course, it feels very relevant.

It was made into a movie in 1931, but I don't know if TCM ever shows it.

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, meowmommy said:

It was made into a movie in 1931, but I don't know if TCM ever shows it.

They do.  I'm not sure how recently it has last aired, but I watched it several years ago.

[EtheltoTillie]

7 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I think I'll try a re-watch.  Mostly I remember hating it, and I think it was because I just could not understand why Dodsworth stayed with her.  Maybe I was immune to amiability that day.

Way upthread, we were talking about movies set in NYC, and I knew of one that had a memorable car chase and other scenes of NYC, but couldn't remember the name.  It's Side Street, directed by Anthony Mann, and TCM is showing it early Friday morning.

It’s the same leads as They Live By Night!  By Nicholas Ray! I will record.  By coincidence I watched Ray’s Born To Be Bad last night.  This All About Eve wannabe is great fun, featuring a witchy Joan Fontaine manipulating every man in sight. You can see the wheels turning in every glance. 

Spoiler

The moment when she was busted, when she lies to her uncle and husband that she had been visiting her sick aunt and they say the aunt had died that afternoon, was a hoot. 

 

[EtheltoTillie]

Another guilty pleasure is on this morning. Where the Boys Are. 

[elle]

Very sad to read the news this morning that Sir Ian Holm has passed away.

In an odd coincidence, I got my teen to watch Chariots of Fire with me last night.  After I pointed out to her that he did the voice of Chef Skinner in Ratatouille, which we recently had watched, she replied that she thought I was going to say that he was Bilbo Baggins in LOTR. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Well, where to begin?  I usually write short comments here because I do not have the time or ability to write more knowledgeable film criticism, as some of you do.  TCM enables my six-degrees-of-separation comments by scheduling a group of films with the same actors or directors in interconnected webs.

First, I watched Born to Be Bad a couple of nights ago, which I've already commented on.  I enjoyed it, but I was going to say that I always find (co-star) Robert Ryan to be repellent.  What is it about him?  He's always leering/jeering through his teeth.  He gives me the creeps. (It was also Zachary Scott night--he was in this and The Unfaithful, which followed.  I can't say I ever found him extremely attractive, but at least he doesn't make my skin crawl.)

Spoiler

Seemed like Ann Sheridan and Scott hated each other too much at the end, and I didn't buy their attempted reconciliation.  I have not watched the other version of this story, The Letter, in a long time, so I'd have to rewatch to compare.

It must have been Robert Ryan night, because then I turn to the never-seen-by-me God's Little Acre.  What in holy hell is this insane mess?  Someone please explain how this ever got made.   I sat jaw agape watching Ryan chew the scenery.  If I thought he was creepy before, here he was creepy and deranged and filthy.  He's having an existential crisis so he digs holes and makes everyone else dig holes?   Deep!

The weird character names, I suppose taken from the book.  Buddy Hackett as a sex-crazed sheriff wannabe?  Darn my socks.  Michael Landon as an albino?  Tina Louise before Ginger.  The famous scene where she and Aldo Ray paw each other must have put a lot of bodies in the seats.   Congratulations to Anthony Mann.  I got only halfway through.  I read about the ending. 

Now I turn to Mann's Side Street, recommended by some of you earlier.  I have not finished watching, but what a dope Farley Granger is in this picture.  Well, anyway, the scenes of NYC did not disappoint. 

Edited June 19, 2020 by GussieK

[Charlie Baker]

God's Little Acre was considered almost unfilmable because the popular novel was so "steamy," Right there would be enough for some filmmakers of the time to attempt it--the popularity and the "scandalous" content. I can see how the backwoods "quirks" of this bunch might not seem all that amusing. I haven't seen it in years, but I think I enjoyed my last viewing.

I've admired Robert Ryan's work, and he certainly had no problem digging into lots of shall we say less than admirable characters.  But if you're willing to try it, there's the short boxing film noir The Set-Up, where he plays a washed-up fighter--you might find him vulnerable and touching. Or not. 🙂

Zachary Scott never impressed me much until I saw him in the atypical lead role of The Southerner,  a struggling salt of the earth farmer. Very good work. 

The Unfaithful is a quite softened take on The Letter. But it does have Eve Arden, as usual giving her all in support. 

[Suzn]

6 hours ago, GussieK said:

...Well, where to begin?  I usually write short comments here because I do not haGod's Little Acre.  What in holy hell is this insane mess?  Someone please explain how this ever got made.   I sat jaw agape watching Ryan chew the scenery.  If I thought he was creepy before, here he was creepy and deranged and filthy.  He's having an existential crisis so he digs holes and makes everyone else dig holes?   Deep!

The weird character names, I suppose taken from the book.  Buddy Hackett as a sex-crazed sheriff wannabe?  Darn my socks.  Michael Landon as an albino?  Tina Louise before Ginger.  The famous scene where she and Aldo Ray paw each other must have put a lot of bodies in the seats.   Congratulations to Anthony Mann.  I got only halfway through.  I read about the ending. ...

 

I hate that movie!  I seldom have such a visceral repellent reaction to a movie.  I have no idea how or why that got made.  I think the books was popular and they apparently wanted to see how far they could go.

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

God's Little Acre was considered almost unfilmable because the popular novel was so "steamy," Right there would be enough for some filmmakers of the time to attempt it--the popularity and the "scandalous" content. I can see how the backwoods "quirks" of this bunch might not seem all that amusing. I haven't seen it in years, but I think I enjoyed my last viewing.

I've admired Robert Ryan's work, and he certainly had no problem digging into lots of shall we say less than admirable characters.  But if you're willing to try it, there's the short boxing film noir The Set-Up, where he plays a washed-up fighter--you might find him vulnerable and touching. Or not. 🙂

Zachary Scott never impressed me much until I saw him in the atypical lead role of The Southerner,  a struggling salt of the earth farmer. Very good work. 

The Unfaithful is a quite softened take on The Letter. But it does have Eve Arden, as usual giving her all in support. 

I agree about The Southerner.  I thought of it earlier too.  I saw it years ago and found it compelling.  I'll never forget how the family got vitamin deficiencies by eating nothing but squirrel meat all winter.  Jean Renoir directed!  As for Scott, I remember thinking "I can't believe that's the same guy who played the sleazy boyfriend in Mildred Pierce"

If The Unfaithful is a softened take on The Letter, The Letter must be an atom bomb.   I will have to rewatch.  Saw it only once, and that was many years ago. 

Yes, Eve Arden had some great lines.

Edited June 19, 2020 by GussieK

[EtheltoTillie]

2 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

God's Little Acre was considered almost unfilmable because the popular novel was so "steamy," Right there would be enough for some filmmakers of the time to attempt it--the popularity and the "scandalous" content. I can see how the backwoods "quirks" of this bunch might not seem all that amusing. I haven't seen it in years, but I think I enjoyed my last viewing.

I've admired Robert Ryan's work, and he certainly had no problem digging into lots of shall we say less than admirable characters.  But if you're willing to try it, there's the short boxing film noir The Set-Up, where he plays a washed-up fighter--you might find him vulnerable and touching. Or not. 🙂

Zachary Scott never impressed me much until I saw him in the atypical lead role of The Southerner,  a struggling salt of the earth farmer. Very good work. 

The Unfaithful is a quite softened take on The Letter. But it does have Eve Arden, as usual giving her all in support. 

Duplicate post, don't know how to delete?

Edited June 19, 2020 by GussieK

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 6/19/2020 at 7:44 AM, GussieK said:

First, I watched Born to Be Bad a couple of nights ago, which I've already commented on.  I enjoyed it, but I was going to say that I always find (co-star) Robert Ryan to be repellent.  What is it about him?  He's always leering/jeering through his teeth.  He gives me the creeps.

When you mentioned Born to Be Bad a couple of days ago, I wrote a response about Robert Ryan but didn't post it because it just wasn't expressing what I wanted to say.  But that's because I didn't come up with "leering/jeering through his teeth."  I, too, watched Born to Be Bad (I didn't know anything about it going in, which made for an interesting experience), and was repelled by Ryan.

But here's the thing.  I could swear that not long ago, I saw a movie that had Robert Ryan in it and he was super charming, and I loved him on the spot.  But every time I've seen him since then (I started seeking him out), he's given me the creeps.  For the life of me, I can't figure out what movie it was that I liked him so much in, even after looking at his filmography.  I'm thinking it was a western, and that he was wearing a hat. 

Which could actually be significant, because I have a bad reaction to some actors' hair.  Like Joseph Cotten--I just don't like that wavy hair.  And Robert Ryan has hair like that, and there's something about the shape of his mouth I don't like, and your comment about his teeth might be related.

It's actually driving me kind of crazy because how could I have been so wrong??  I've always prided myself on having a pretty good "picker" when it comes to men, and this has me troubled.

 

Quote

Now I turn to Mann's Side Street, recommended by some of you earlier.  I have not finished watching, but what a dope Farley Granger is in this picture.  Well, anyway, the scenes of NYC did not disappoint.

In my defense, I recommended it only for the scenes of NYC, especially the one at the end.

[EtheltoTillie]

Okay, I can't help it.  I present the impeccable song stylings of Robert Ryan.

 

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

When you mentioned Born to Be Bad a couple of days ago, I wrote a response about Robert Ryan but didn't post it because it just wasn't expressing what I wanted to say.  But that's because I didn't come up with "leering/jeering through his teeth."  I, too, watched Born to Be Bad (I didn't know anything about it going in, which made for an interesting experience), and was repelled by Ryan.

But here's the thing.  I could swear that not long ago, I saw a movie that had Robert Ryan in it and he was super charming, and I loved him on the spot.  But every time I've seen him since then (I started seeking him out), he's given me the creeps.  For the life of me, I can't figure out what movie it was that I liked him so much in, even after looking at his filmography.  I'm thinking it was a western, and that he was wearing a hat. 

Which could actually be significant, because I have a bad reaction to some actors' hair.  Like Joseph Cotten--I just don't like that wavy hair.  And Robert Ryan has hair like that, and there's something about the shape of his mouth I don't like, and your comment about his teeth might be related.

It's actually driving me kind of crazy because how could I have been so wrong??  I've always prided myself on having a pretty good "picker" when it comes to men, and this has me troubled.

 

In my defense, I recommended it only for the scenes of NYC, especially the one at the end.

Check out this What's My Line episode with Robert Ryan.  That's how I also found the aforementioned singing.

Ryan co-starred with panelist Harry Belafonte in Odds Against Tomorrow. 

Edited June 20, 2020 by GussieK

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

In my defense, I recommended it only for the scenes of NYC, especially the one at the end.

Yes, that was good.  The end was filmed a few blocks down Broadway from my office.  So many of those old buildings are still there.  I work in one of the old buildings myself, and the Woolworth Building is across the street.  I love the area.   

[Rinaldo]

On 6/19/2020 at 4:45 PM, GussieK said:

Duplicate post, don't know how to delete?

It can't be done. The best we can do is edit it down to one line -- "Duplicate post, sorry" sort of thing.

I find myself wanting to come to Robert Ryan's defense. Obviously I can't say that someone's visceral reaction to an actor is "wrong" -- it is what it is. But Ryan was a very good actor who could inhabit sleazy characters so well, they seemed to be him. And he did appear in a lot of mediocre movies as dislikable characters over the years; that seems to be how the studios saw him, and sometimes a working actor just has to take the best jobs offered at the time, and keep going. But when he got a chance to show his quality, he definitely did. He did it onstage in plays like The Front Page, and he could do it onscreen when given the chance: look at his Claggart in Billy Budd, or at one of his last performances, in The Iceman Cometh, for some great screen acting.

That said, I'll mock his song renditions in Mr. President as gleefully as anybody. No defense offered on that one.

[Bastet]

On 6/19/2020 at 1:45 PM, GussieK said:

Duplicate post, don't know how to delete?

 

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

It can't be done. The best we can do is edit it down to one line -- "Duplicate post, sorry" sort of thing.

 

If you want it gone entirely, just report it and ask the moderator to delete it.

[Charlie Baker]

I haven't been paying much attention to the jazz themed TCM Spotlight lineup but last night I happened to get hooked on Jazz on a Summer's Day.  It's documentary footage shot ( and beautifully restored) during a day of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. It's not Woodstock-level exhaustive, its running time is short.  I am not particularly a big jazz aficionado, but the performances here are all intriguing, and some a bit more than that--glimpses of Theolonius Monk, Gerry Mulligan, George Shearing, the Chico Hamilton Quintet (and the cellist has a splendidly shot Bach solo after a rehearsal); Anita O'Day, DInah Washington, Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry (!) doing their respective things.  Idyllic looking shots of Newport and the simultaneously occurring America's Cup are interspersed, plus it's a real time capsule.  Then it's wrapped up very strongly  with the star attractions Louis Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson.

It's available on Watch TCM, and even if these names and/or their music don't mean that much to you, you might just find it, like I did, the kind of summer's day diversion we'd all like to have.

[Robert Lynch]

Boy, was Lionel Barrymore creepy as Rasputin or what in Rasputin and The Empress? He gave Pennywise a run for his money in the creep factor. The fly and ant scene still scares me to this day.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Robert Lynch