TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[EtheltoTillie]

OK I exaggerated @Rinaldo  lol. But seeing them so close together made me focus on the similarities. 

[Charlie Baker]

I forgive Les Demoiselles de Rochefort a lot, even that weird near-subplot, because, as @Rinaldo says, it's so nice to listen to and look at. 

[EtheltoTillie]

A sad day for comedy fans.  RIP TCM guest programmer Gilbert Gottfried, one of the funniest humans alive.  I once got to see him perform live at Caroline's comedy club in NYC.

Gilbert was a national treasure.  He really kept alive the history of old TV and movie programs.  His podcast (with Frank Santopadre) was a great resource.  He was apparently ill for a long time. 

[Lady Whistleup]

On 4/9/2022 at 9:06 PM, voiceover said:

My favorite Garbo of them all!  That drunk sequence with Melvyn Douglas is *chef’s kiss-perfection.

“Radio is a little box that you buy on the installment plan and before you tune it in, they tell you there's a new model out.”  Even though my lips move while I watch it, I never tire of that scene.  All hail Lubitsch!

I love Ninotchka! This is one of my favorite sequences in all of movies:

 

[Milburn Stone]

On 4/12/2022 at 3:04 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

A sad day for comedy fans.  RIP TCM guest programmer Gilbert Gottfried, one of the funniest humans alive.  I once got to see him perform live at Caroline's comedy club in NYC.

Gilbert was a national treasure.  He really kept alive the history of old TV and movie programs.  His podcast (with Frank Santopadre) was a great resource.  He was apparently ill for a long time. 

In the wake of GG's death, I've been hearing about a documentary on him. For some reason I got the impression that this was from the 2020s, but the only thing I'm finding is a 2017 film simply called Gilbert. Is that "the one" or is there another one?

[EtheltoTillie]

58 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

In the wake of GG's death, I've been hearing about a documentary on him. For some reason I got the impression that this was from the 2020s, but the only thing I'm finding is a 2017 film simply called Gilbert. Is that "the one" or is there another one?

That is the one.  I think it was on Netflix at the time. It's really good.  Also, if you are interested, seek out his episode from a couple of years earlier when he appeared on Celebrity Wife Swap.  You can also watch Gilbert's funeral service.  Links have been circulating.  Several comics spoke, and it was quite funny.  He was deep down a sweet person with a crazy on-stage persona.  Yesterday I listened to a Fresh Air segment from 1992 with Terry Gross--she reposted it last week.  He was promoting the movie Aladdin at the time.  So funny.  Especially if you like impressions of Borscht Belt comedians.  And Jerry Seinfeld.  You can also watch YouTube videos of his various routines, and listen to his podcast. There's a wonderful profile in the New Yorker about him and one of his sisters, who died of cancer.  But I've been a superfan for many  years, so I know all this. 

[Milburn Stone]

I might just do all of this. Thanks, @EtheltoTillie.

[EtheltoTillie]

28 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

I might just do all of this. Thanks, @EtheltoTillie.

Enjoy!

Re Seinfeld:  he does a dead-on impression and then says Seinfeld says (in Seinfeld voice) "I don't think I sound like that at all." 

Edited April 21, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/21/2022 at 8:29 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

Yesterday I listened to a Fresh Air segment from 1992 with Terry Gross--she reposted it last week.  He was promoting the movie Aladdin at the time.  So funny.  Especially if you like impressions of Borscht Belt comedians.  And Jerry Seinfeld. 

It was hilarious, made even moreso because Terry Gross couldn't help laughing, even though she was miffed that he insisted on being in character for the entire interview.

[Charlie Baker]

Just wanted to put in a word for last Saturday's Noir Alley, The Window, a taut, tough, and compact thriller. (I was seeing it for the first time, somewhat aware of its reputation.)  For something that may have been done on a tight budget, it's impressively well-made, with lots of NYC location work.  The concept of putting a kid in jeopardy can be problematic, but it works here, with the kid being the protagonist and the situation he finds himself in--witnessing a murder which no one will believe he saw--fully developed.  The script might falter and date here and there, but it gets the job done and gets in some dark elements that feel genuinely noir.  The tension of the climactic sequence and its resolution are beautifully done.  Bobby Driscoll's work in the lead holds up well.   And as Eddie Muller points out, Arthur Kennedy as the boy's father shows once again he's a tremendous actor who was underrated through his career. 

[Rinaldo]

Never have I valued TCM as much as I did Sunday afternoon, after a tense visit to the ER Saturday afternoon and the OR Sunday morning. (Spoiler alert: the surgery solved everything, I got sent home Monday evening, and I'm resting happily & comfortably at home now.) By midday Sunday, I was in my hospital room, feeling great (partly because of what the surgery had solved and partly from the aftermath of some really top-shelf drugs) and looking for diversion. Bless the in-house TV system for including TCM, and bless TCM for offering me at just the right moment two of my favorite entertainments: All About Eve followed by Two for the Road.  Good times indeed.

[Charlie Baker]

Glad you're recuperating, @RINALDO.  And I'd certainly be hard-pressed to come up with better tonics than those two movies.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/26/2022 at 1:17 PM, Rinaldo said:

Never have I valued TCM as much as I did Sunday afternoon, after a tense visit to the ER Saturday afternoon and the OR Sunday morning. (Spoiler alert: the surgery solved everything, I got sent home Monday evening, and I'm resting happily & comfortably at home now.) By midday Sunday, I was in my hospital room, feeling great (partly because of what the surgery had solved and partly from the aftermath of some really top-shelf drugs) and looking for diversion. Bless the in-house TV system for including TCM, and bless TCM for offering me at just the right moment two of my favorite entertainments: All About Eve followed by Two for the Road.  Good times indeed.

Glad you are on the mend. 

[EtheltoTillie]

On 4/26/2022 at 12:41 PM, Charlie Baker said:

Just wanted to put in a word for last Saturday's Noir Alley, The Window, a taut, tough, and compact thriller. (I was seeing it for the first time, somewhat aware of its reputation.)  For something that may have been done on a tight budget, it's impressively well-made, with lots of NYC location work.  The concept of putting a kid in jeopardy can be problematic, but it works here, with the kid being the protagonist and the situation he finds himself in--witnessing a murder which no one will believe he saw--fully developed.  The script might falter and date here and there, but it gets the job done and gets in some dark elements that feel genuinely noir.  The tension of the climactic sequence and its resolution are beautifully done.  Bobby Driscoll's work in the lead holds up well.   And as Eddie Muller points out, Arthur Kennedy as the boy's father shows once again he's a tremendous actor who was underrated through his career. 

I watched this a couple of years ago. It was really too dark for me. But very well made. 

[seasons]

Just watched the gorgeous "How to Marry A Millionaire". Question - why is Lauren Bacall's character " Mrs. Page" throughout the movie? Mrs.? 

[mariah23]

3 hours ago, seasons said:

Just watched the gorgeous "How to Marry A Millionaire". Question - why is Lauren Bacall's character " Mrs. Page" throughout the movie? Mrs.? 

Wasn’t she married before?

[seasons]

53 minutes ago, mariah23 said:

Wasn’t she married before?

Was she? Did I miss that part in the very beginning? Looked online but couldn't find anything about that. Just curious!

[SomeTameGazelle]

36 minutes ago, seasons said:

Was she? Did I miss that part in the very beginning? Looked online but couldn't find anything about that. Just curious!

Very early on, when she's lecturing Loco over lunch about how she shouldn't waste time picking up losers (like Tom Brookman) at the deli counter, she confirms that she is recently divorced.

[seasons]

1 minute ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Very early on, when she's lecturing Loco over lunch about how she shouldn't waste time picking up losers (like Tom Brookman) at the deli counter, she confirms that she is recently divorced.

Oh, thanks, I did miss that part. Thanks very much.

[Suzn]

On 4/26/2022 at 11:41 AM, Charlie Baker said:

Just wanted to put in a word for last Saturday's Noir Alley, The Window, a taut, tough, and compact thriller. (I was seeing it for the first time, somewhat aware of its reputation.)  For something that may have been done on a tight budget, it's impressively well-made, with lots of NYC location work.  The concept of putting a kid in jeopardy can be problematic, but it works here, with the kid being the protagonist and the situation he finds himself in--witnessing a murder which no one will believe he saw--fully developed.  The script might falter and date here and there, but it gets the job done and gets in some dark elements that feel genuinely noir.  The tension of the climactic sequence and its resolution are beautifully done.  Bobby Driscoll's work in the lead holds up well.   And as Eddie Muller points out, Arthur Kennedy as the boy's father shows once again he's a tremendous actor who was underrated through his career. 

I really disliked The Window. I realize the the kid had told tall tales before but it seemed like he had horrible parents who wouldn't listen to anything.  The last straw was locking him in and nailing the window shut.  I think that could land someone in jail these days.  It was just an unpleasant and frustrating movie.

[PaulaO]

I just caught the last half hour of All About Eve.  I am one who picks up on nothing in movies unless it whacks me over the head, but it was clear Addison was blackmailing Eve when he said you belong to me.  Not financial blackmail, but emotional blackmail as in “I hold your future in my hands.”    Oh, that Eve was so horrible.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:17 AM, Suzn said:

I really disliked The Window. I realize the the kid had told tall tales before but it seemed like he had horrible parents who wouldn't listen to anything.  The last straw was locking him in and nailing the window shut.  I think that could land someone in jail these days.  It was just an unpleasant and frustrating movie.

As Eddie Mueller pointed out in both the intro and the outro to this film, there are excellent reasons why noir films so rarely featured children in danger. It's too upsetting - people don't want to see it. Apparently the film didn't do well at the time for just this reason, although I think it's really really good. But yes, very disturbing.

The more seriously depressing aspect of Billy Driscoll's Oscar-winning performance came much later in his life, when he was unable to transition to adult roles, and many bad things happened.  As Mueller discussed in his outro to the film. Very sad.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Is anybody else not getting captions on TCM on TV?  I noticed it yesterday, during Holiday, even though the card at the beginning said it has closed captioning.  And same thing today with the Bowery Boys movie and O Lucky Man!  

I'm getting them on other channels but I did a re-set of my DirecTV receiver anyway, and TCM still doesn't have captions.

I'm wondering if this is something TCM is doing to everybody, of if it's just me.  As usual.  😀

 

[Charlie Baker]

I have CCs now on TCM through my cable provider, FWIW.

[bmoore4026]

Watching American Ninja right now on TCM Underground.  Oh, the camp is glorious and Michael Dudikoff is dreamy.  God bless Cannon Films.

[Tom Holmberg]

11 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

Watching American Ninja right now on TCM Underground.  Oh, the camp is glorious and Michael Dudikoff is dreamy.  God bless Cannon Films.

I DVRed "New York Ninja" but haven't watched it yet.  Apparently it was made in the 1980s, but not finished until 2021!

[Miss Anne Thrope]

2 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I DVRed "New York Ninja" but haven't watched it yet.  Apparently it was made in the 1980s, but not finished until 2021!

I caught most of it last night, and it was pretty hilarious and eye-roll worthy -- in other words, quite enjoyable.  If anyone is familiar with Joe Bob Briggs' Drive-In Theater ('80s era The Movie Channel), he would definitely have shown New York Ninja. 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Miss Anne Thrope

[ratgirlagogo]

On 5/13/2022 at 5:09 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Is anybody else not getting captions on TCM on TV?  I noticed it yesterday, during Holiday, even though the card at the beginning said it has closed captioning.  And same thing today with the Bowery Boys movie and O Lucky Man!  

I'm getting them on other channels but I did a re-set of my DirecTV receiver anyway, and TCM still doesn't have captions.

I'm wondering if this is something TCM is doing to everybody, of if it's just me.  As usual.  😀

 

 

22 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

I have CCs now on TCM through my cable provider, FWIW.

We also went through the no-closed-captions thing a couple of years ago with TCM - and it turned out to be the fault of our cable provider.  We've also gone through this with channels that kept on displaying as mostly pixelated (Ovation, H&I, some others) where we contacted the channels directly and found out it was our cable provider.

Edited May 14, 2022 by ratgirlagogo

[EtheltoTillie]

We’re getting captions on TCM. Spectrum cable. I couldn’t live without them. 
I watched a bit of the NY Ninja movie. Spectacularly bad. An interesting trivial footnote in cinema history. I enjoyed seeing the real 80s NY landscape. 

[Tom Holmberg]

On 5/14/2022 at 4:17 PM, Miss Anne Thrope said:

I caught most of it last night, and it was pretty hilarious and eye-roll worthy -- in other words, quite enjoyable.  If anyone is familiar with Joe Bob Briggs' Drive-In Theater ('80s era The Movie Channel), he would definitely have shown New York Ninja. 

Combined a bunch of 80s themes: chop-socky movies, ninjas, vigilante movies, rollerskating, "The Warriors", etc.

[EtheltoTillie]

Last night I watched Butley on Watch TCM.  This is the last day for it.  It is a filmed play, part of an American Film Theater series.  I actually saw this on the Broadway stage in 1972 with Alan Bates.  I couldn't remember a thing about it other than that my friend and I were thrilled to see Alan Bates in person.  I think I was way too young to understand the play. 

 On screen you are very aware of the quirks.  Alan Bates spends the first hour in close up with a hideous bloody bandage on his face from a shaving cut.  It's metaphoric, if you will.  There is lots of cutting humor.  It's also a good satire of academia.  Butley is a failing English professor who is going from Wordsworth to nursery rhymes.  There's a great scene where a student reads her pedestrian essay out loud.  So much to enjoy. 

The tag line for the movie poster is "His wife just left him for another man.  So did his boyfriend."  So "daring" for its time . . . but also so cheesy! 

 

Edited May 16, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Rinaldo]

I saw Butley when it appeared in movie theaters as part of the American Film Theatre series (the cinema adjoining the IU campus showed all of them as they were released). I was interested enough to buy the published play, and later to buy the DVD. Allowing for a little wordless "opening out" before and after scenes, it's a quite exact rendition of Simon Gray's play, directed as it had been onstage by Harold Pinter. (The supporting cast has some new members, like Jessica Tandy.)

The film intrigued me, and still does (as do several of Gray's plays), but I'm not sure it's as simple as

On 5/16/2022 at 12:42 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

"His wife just left him for another man.  So did his boyfriend."

Is Joey his boyfriend? They're flatmates after Butley's separation, and Butley is very possessive about him -- but so he is with everything and everyone. His unbalanced alcoholic needy state is what the play's about, and I fear that it's bound up in the attitudes and sexual politics of a particular time in a particular stratum of English society, to the point where American brains may miss the cues. I always worry that I'm missing them. The two of them seem to act like boyfriends and yet some of the scenes indicate otherwise. I wonder if Gray himself had an exact meaning in mind. For that matter, I wonder what Alan Bates made of it, being himself (as detailed in the authorized biography) a man whose closest romantic relationships were with men while marrying and having children, and insisting to some of his male partners that he wasn't gay. Perhaps the confusions of Butley are in part a portrait (conscious or not) of Bates, with whom Gray was close friends all their lives and for whom he wrote several plays.

Actually, it's been a while since I've seen the movie. I need to revisit it and see how it strikes me now.

[EtheltoTillie]

19 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I saw Butley when it appeared in movie theaters as part of the American Film Theatre series (the cinema adjoining the IU campus showed all of them as they were released). I was interested enough to buy the published play, and later to buy the DVD. Allowing for a little wordless "opening out" before and after scenes, it's a quite exact rendition of Simon Gray's play, directed as it had been onstage by Harold Pinter. (The supporting cast has some new members, like Jessica Tandy.)

The film intrigued me, and still does (as do several of Gray's plays), but I'm not sure it's as simple as

Is Joey his boyfriend? They're flatmates after Butley's separation, and Butley is very possessive about him -- but so he is with everything and everyone. His unbalanced alcoholic needy state is what the play's about, and I fear that it's bound up in the attitudes and sexual politics of a particular time in a particular stratum of English society, to the point where American brains may miss the cues. I always worry that I'm missing them. The two of them seem to act like boyfriends and yet some of the scenes indicate otherwise. I wonder if Gray himself had an exact meaning in mind. For that matter, I wonder what Alan Bates made of it, being himself (as detailed in the authorized biography) a man whose closest romantic relationships were with men while marrying and having children, and insisting to some of his male partners that he wasn't gay. Perhaps the confusions of Butley are in part a portrait (conscious or not) of Bates, with whom Gray was close friends all their lives and for whom he wrote several plays.

Actually, it's been a while since I've seen the movie. I need to revisit it and see how it strikes me now.

Love this comment, Rinaldo.   This is very apt and exactly what I was wondering.  I thought the ambiguity was related to the reticence required of the times, but I could see the veiled references.  But darn it--TCM cut off the movie access before the end of the day and I missed the last 20 minutes!

Edited May 18, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

But darn it--TCM cut off the movie access before the end of the day and I missed the last 20 minutes!

It seems to be on YouTube if you want to finish it.

[Charlie Baker]

These American Film Theatre selections are pretty fascinating, and pretty variable as to quality, as I recall.  I eventually got to see most of them; revisiting Butley, I thought it held up very well.  Bates' character and his performance are of course dominant--he's great.  But Jessica Tandy and Richard O'Callaghan are excellent in support, in point of fact.  The ambiguity and potentially fluid sexuality--I did not remember the late revelation about Ms. Tandy's character--hardly seem dated in our present. 

[Rinaldo]

On 5/21/2022 at 12:27 PM, Charlie Baker said:

These American Film Theatre selections are pretty fascinating, and pretty variable as to quality, as I recall. 

That's my recollection too. I didn't see all of them, but the ones I did see varied: Butley was a wonderful preservation to have of the play and performance; A Delicate Balance (which I caught up with only recently) is an impressive realization of a tricky, obscure play (and a good reminder that unlike some other leading ladies of her film generation, Katharine Hepburn continued to undertake challenging classic stage roles in her later years); and The Iceman Cometh is an astonishingly fine realization of a play that can be borderline-annoying yet is great in spite of it all. If it had only had Jason Robards in his classic role rather than Lee Marvin (who did his honest best but was cast too far against the grain), it could stand as ideal; and it boasts a spectrum of fine supporting performances, from young Jeff Bridges through wonderful old-timers (like Fredric March and Martyn Green) to a valedictory proof of Robert Ryan's greatness. (The movie also inspired one of Pauline Kael's best essays, one that really showed her familiarity with classic dramatic texts and her analytical insight.)

[Charlie Baker]

I caught up with an intriguing Bette Davis title I hadn't seen, Payment on Demand.  This was her first movie after her time at Warner Bros. ended, and she was still shooting it when she got the call offering her All About Eve, to start shooting immediately afterward,  And RKO waited to release it until after Eve hit big.

It's about the end of a marriage.  The wife (guess who) drove her husband to success and schemed to advance him, and he grew increasingly resentful.  It plays like a talky, drawing room drama, and when things fall apart and he demands a divorce, we get highly theatrical flashbacks to their humble beginnings.  It all works pretty well within the confines of this type of melodrama. The supporting cast keeps up with the star, Barry Sullivan as the husband and Jane Cowl as a dowager, and Betty Lynn (Later to be Thelma Lou of Mayberry!) as the couple's young daughter stand out.   And of course Ms. D. has her field day and commendably never goes too far over the top.  The ending is left open--maybe these two will get together again, maybe not--supposedly softened over the original ending.  At any rate, it is pretty honest for a movie of this time, when the Code frowned upon divorce being taken lightly, or floated as an acceptable life choice.

It's on Watch TCM until the 1st. 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Charlie Baker

[Suzn]

20 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

I caught up with an intriguing Bette Davis title I hadn't seen, Payment on Demand.  This was her first movie after her time at Warner Bros. ended, and she was still shooting it when she got the call offering her All About Eve, to start shooting immediately afterward,  And RKO waited to release it until after Eve hit big.

It's about the end of a marriage.  The wife (guess who) drove her husband to success and schemed to advance him, and he grew increasingly resentful.  It plays like a talky, drawing room drama, and when things fall apart and he demands a divorce, we get highly theatrical flashbacks to their humble beginnings.  It all works pretty well within the confines of this type of melodrama. The supporting cast keeps up with the star, Barry Sullivan as the husband and Jane Cowl as a dowager, and Betty Lynn (Later to be Thelma Lou of Mayberry!) as the couple's young daughter stand out.   And of course Ms. D. has her field day and commendably never goes too far over the top.  The ending is left open--maybe these two will get together again, maybe not--supposedly softened over the original ending.  At any rate, it is pretty honest for a movie of this time, when the Code frowned upon divorce being taken lightly, or floated as an acceptable life choice.

It's on Watch TCM until the 1st. 

I had never heard of this movie and as is often the case, I could see why I hadn't.  I found the characters unpleasant (except the daughters) so really didn't care if they reconciled.  Bette Davis played her role as unlikeable but not in any interesting way.  It was hard to see her as the same person who played Margo in All About Eve at about the same period.

[EtheltoTillie]

Another wacky curiosity that you still have a day to catch on Watch TCM.  She-Freak, which purports to be a remake of Tod Browning’s Freaks.  Yeah, for the sixties drive-in movie circuit. Trashy diner waitress Jade seeks a step up so she joins a carnival as a waitress.  She marries the owner of the side show but is appalled by the disabled people.  There’s a lot of stock footage of roustabouts assembling and disassembling rides and silent montages of lovers. Also a dwarf named Shorty. It has a disturbing creepiness accentuated by the jazz soundtrack.  The ending makes you think of Nightmare Alley.  The lead actress died young of cancer but had a small career in guest appearances on shows like Barnaby Jones. 

Edited May 27, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Rinaldo]

On 5/25/2022 at 12:45 PM, Suzn said:

Bette Davis played her role as unlikeable but not in any interesting way.  It was hard to see her as the same person who played Margo in All About Eve at about the same period.

After this contrast was mentioned, it was fun to stumble across It's Love I'm After on TCM this morning. I hadn't seen it in a while. This 1937 item paired Bette Davis and Leslie Howard for the third time, and after seeing them love-hate each other across class boundaries in Of Human Bondage, and take part in tense drama in The Petrified Forest, it's kind of a kick to see them let loose in an upper-crust sort of screwball comedy like this. They're a famous classical acting team (people at the time would have thought of Lunt and Fontanne, though this pair never quite manages to get to the altar despite their tempestuous feelings), and we're well populated with the requisite types all such comedies had then, courtesy of studio contracts. Olivia de Havilland is the young heiress, and Eric Blore & Spring Byington are on hand too so that we'll have a knowing servant and a dithering dowager. It's formula stuff in a way, but it makes me smile.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Rinaldo

[EtheltoTillie]

I’m going to catch up with both of those Bette Davis titles this weekend. Meanwhile I’m watching Portrait in Black, which seems to be a remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice, also starring Lana Turner!  Her lover is played by Anthony Quinn.  Juicy Ross Hunter production. This was shown for Anna May Wong Day, apparently. Even the tacky oil paintings get a screen credit!  

Edited May 28, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Charlie Baker]

An appreciation of a brilliant, groundbreaking cinematographer.

James Wong Howe

[Prairie Rose]

I just caught Luxury Liner (1948), with George Brent as the captain of the eponymous vessel and Jane Powell as his spirited daughter. It was a beautifully shot musical with a very engaging cast, including Xavier Cugat and his orchestra! Jane Powell had several musical showcases from "Spring Came Back to Vienna" to "The Peanut Vendor", but this was my favorite:

[Charlie Baker]

The Star of the Month tribute begins tonight.  Her centennial is a week from now,

Judy Garland

[Charlie Baker]

Ben's new piece for CBS Sunday Morning is a profile of an actor who's come through some big health challenges.

Jeff Bridges

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/26/2022 at 11:41 AM, Charlie Baker said:

Just wanted to put in a word for last Saturday's Noir Alley, The Window, a taut, tough, and compact thriller.

Thanks for the heads up.  I watched it last night, and was taken by the NYC location shooting (which I always love), and the camerawork, especially during the chase in the empty building.  There was a lot more going on there than I expected from a little hour-and-fifteen-minute movie starring a kid.

[Rinaldo]

I saw a couple of trifles that I'd recorded from last week, See Here, Private Hargrove and Please Believe Me. The former, from 1955, is a standard sort of service comedy (based on a best-selling memoir) of an ordinary guy getting drafted, being a total misfit at first, but then shaping up into a Real Soldier, fit to take on the enemy in WWII; the latter is a romantic comedy, set on an Atlantic crossing, then NYC and Texas, wherein Deborah Kerr has to choose between three men of various personalities. Both are utter trifles, and I wouldn't bring them up except that they got me thinking about a couple of things:

• Deborah Kerr was the girl in Please Believe Me, and I use the word deliberately -- she really was presented as Some Random Pretty Girl. It made me think about the ups and downs of a movie career, wherein just a year before she had delivered searing, moving work in Edward, My Son (one of the best, most saddening, drunk scenes ever), and here she was, embarked on several years of fluffy comedies and epics (Quo Vadis et al), followed by a string of governesses (King and I, The Innocents, The Chalk Garden), the latter often memorable, but still not really a full bill of fare for an actress of her quality and versatility.
• Robert Walker was in both, and (as in the other early appearances of his that I've seen) seemed like the Standard Studio Juvenile. How did Alfred Hitchcock know that he had a complex, frightening embodiment of Bruno in Strangers on a Train in him? Which he certainly did -- one of the most unforgettable pieces of acting in any Hitchcock film. I think I have to give AH more credit as a talent-spotter than I ever had before (I mean, of the other top examples Ithat come to mind, Peggy Ashcroft, Michael Redgrave, Dame May Whitty, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten all came pre-certified, so to speak). Walker had a famously troubled offscreen life; maybe Hitch saw him on a social occasion and sensed that he could bring a troubled persona to the screen, given the opportunity. However it came about, he sure delivered. (And then, alas, died within the year.)

Edited June 7, 2022 by Rinaldo

[Milburn Stone]

Watched Stage Fright last night, with the Bob Mackie intro and outro. I'd forgotten how good that movie is. Mainly, I'd forgotten how funny that movie is. Jane Wyman basically spends the entire movie having to hide from people! There's much wit in the dialogue, but there's also comedy in the basic situation.

And it's pure Hitchcock. No one else would have made this story this way. Some compositions take your breath away.

Speaking of that, I got goosebumps from one scene that "should" have played out as quite ordinary. It's near the end, when the nice detective can barely control his rage at feeling betrayed by the young actress. The two of them face each other at a distance in a two-shot in the parlor of her parents' house. It looks exactly like the forest scene in North by Northwest, between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, after Cary has "killed" her and now finds out she has lied to him about any possibility of their being together. It's not only the same situation, it's the same shot! Just take out the parlor, and bring in the trees.

I no longer believe that Stage Fright is "lesser" Hitchcock.

Edited June 8, 2022 by Milburn Stone

[Charlie Baker]

An interesting overview of this director from Vulture:

The Acerbic Works of Robert Aldrich

Edited June 16, 2022 by Charlie Baker

[Rinaldo]

Alert: Monday at 2 pm ET, TCM is showing Girl Crazy -- not the Mickey & Judy version (and not When the Boys Meet the Girls either), but the 1932 one tailored to the the Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey "comedy" team. A handful of the Gershwin songs remain (and they supplied one new one), but it's so bizarrely primitive, I think it's worth a look for those interested in this material or the development of movie musicals. Or if you've never seen Wheeler & Woolsey; they turn up here and there during that period, and always evoke that bewildered "but how did they become popular in the first place?" reaction from me.

And just quick mentions of two artifacts arriving on Tuesday, for those who've never seen them: Plan 9 from Outer Space and Catalina Caper. The former is one of the legendary creations of Ed Wood, and the latter is a beach movie (with a treasure hunt in the background) without the budget for Frankie & Annette. Tommy Kirk is as starry as we get, unless we count the guest appearance of Little Richard (otherwise we have to make do with The Cascades for the onscreen music). Maybe I overrate this interest of this one, having first encountered it as subject for a memorable installment of MST3K.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Rinaldo