TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Milburn Stone]

7 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

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.

At this point, attention must be paid to The Golden Turkey Awards, the 1980 book by Michael Medved (yes, that Michael Medved) and his brother Harry. They named Plan 9 the worst movie ever made, thereby bringing it for the first time to the attention of me and untold others.

The book was a big hit at the time! Logically, it also named Ed Wood the worst director of all time. Tim Burton was a young man of 22 when the book came out. I can't prove it, but feel certain that the Burton/Johnny Depp Ed Wood would never have been made if not for the Medveds.

(Further, the book may have been the inspiration for the entire MST3K enterprise.)

Edited June 19, 2022 by Milburn Stone

[Spartan Girl]

So I watched the 1940 Thief of Bagdad, not to be confused with the original 1924 silent film. For years, I heard that this was the main inspiration of Disney’s Aladdin, and yup I can definitely see that. The prince’s beggar costume was almost exactly like Aladdin’s. Plus there’s a flying carpet, an evil vizier named Jaffar, and sidekick character named Abu (who is also the titular character). They even have the Blue Rose of Forgetfulness that was in the TV series! 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

While yes, this film does have a lot of racist stereotypes and Orientalism, I have to give props that Abu (played by Sabu) is pretty much the true hero of the story, not so much the (white) prince.

[Rinaldo]

22 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I watched the 1940 Thief of Bagdad

I saw this last year, for what to my surprise i realized was the first time (it's so much a part of film lore, and has been a model for so many others, it seemed almost familiar). One little feature I want to point out is Halima, the enigmatic Silver Maiden, because of the actress playing her. Mary Morris was an extraordinary actress who by happenstance is poorly documented onscreen. This eye-catching but hardly deep role turns out to be probably her only appearance that's often seen, but she did a lot of British TV, including a Cleopatra that I hope survives but probably doesn't. The biggest evidence of her talent that I know is the 1960 BBC miniseries An Age of Kings, which is available on DVD and which I highly recommend. It's Shakespeare's chronicle of English history reformatted from 8 plays into 15 hourlong episodes, and Mary Morris makes a searing impression as Margaret of Anjou, outstanding in the series even against such luminaries as a young Sean Connery (Hotspur), an even younger Judi Dench (Katherine of France), Robert Hardy (Henry V), and Paul Daneman (Richard III), another actor who should be better known.

I don't know if Mary Morris's girl-next-door name lacked mystique, or she didn't care about building a "career" as generally understood, or she just had bad luck in her choices, but she ought to be remembered alongside other great UK actresses of her generation.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Rinaldo

[EtheltoTillie]

Golden Turkey Award winner Plan 9 deserves all its legendary reputation. At the time the book came out they had a Golden Turkey festival at the Beacon Theater here in NYC, and my husband and I and our friends enjoyed a few hilarity-filled nights. But these were films we had watched as kids on our local channels’ horror programs. 

Edited June 21, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Charlie Baker]

Today also included the amazingly inept Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.  Quite a day.  I am intrigued with Bucket of Blood--never saw it and it's on Watch TCM.

[Tom Holmberg]

15 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

Today also included the amazingly inept Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.  Quite a day.  I am intrigued with Bucket of Blood--never saw it and it's on Watch TCM.

I think the poster sold Attack.

[Milburn Stone]

11 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I think the poster sold Attack.

The best kind of 50-foot woman is a sexy 50-foot woman.

[Tom Holmberg]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

The best kind of 50-foot woman is a sexy 50-foot woman.

Especially when you could look up her skirt and see her two foot.....😎

Edited June 22, 2022 by Tom Holmberg

[Milburn Stone]

11 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

Especially when you could look up her skirt and see her two foot.....😎

I don't dare react to this.

[Tom Holmberg]

21 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

I don't dare react to this.

There was a sequel in mind, where the 50-ft Woman marries the Incredible Shrinking Man, but they couldn't reconcile their differences.

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 6/19/2022 at 9:54 AM, Rinaldo said:

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 tailed 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.

Thanks for the tip. I recorded it to watch. I don't know if I would have guessed that Wheeler and Woolsey were a duo based on their interactions. Woolsey's bit seemed much better-developed. I mean it was all creaky but Wheeler was much harder to enjoy. 

It reminded me of some of the jokes in The Drowsy Chaperone about how early musicals were mostly cobbled together bits of shtick according to the various performers' acts. 

Now I need to listen to Ethel Merman's version of I Got Rhythm as a sort of palate cleanser.

ETA: thinking about watching Born Reckless with Mamie Van Doren and Jeff Richards (who played Benjamin, the non-dancing, non-singing handsome one in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers). I had always assumed that Mamie was meant to be the Reckless one but it seems like maybe I am supposed to consider him Reckless?

Edited June 23, 2022 by SomeTameGazelle

[Tom Holmberg]

Watched "beau Brummell" yesterday.  Haven't seen it in a while. Always like Stewart Granger in historical movies and Peter Ustinov is a kick as "Prinny."  Love the "Who's your fat friend?" line (which is historical). 

[EtheltoTillie]

This weekend was apparently costume night, and they had on a noted costume designer to discuss Mahogany and Taxi Driver. I appreciated the thoughts on costume design.
 I had never seen Mahogany, as it was never respected and has never been shown much. It’s a camp classic and I caught the end and the costume discussion.
 

Then I tried to rewatch Taxi Driver, but I could not get through it, as brilliant as the writing, acting, cinematography, New York setting and score are.   At the time it came out I found it disturbing. This time in the wake of our now national weekly eruption by Travis Bickel types, I just couldn’t stomach it. I smashed the off button at the moment the bodega owner started whaling on the robber with a tire iron. 
Costume wise, Cybill Shepard’s DVF wrap dress was iconic. 

Edited June 26, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

This weekend was apparently costume night, and they had on a noted costume designer to discuss Mahogany and Taxi Driver.

Last Saturday I watched the end of Annie Hall and Alicia Malone had Tim Gunn as a guest, talking about the costumes.  Maybe it's a series.

[Rinaldo]

Follow the Thread is a theme throughout June and July. I saw Bob Mackie do more than one of these, and thought it was going to be him throughout, but I was wrong: it's a series of knowledgeable guests.

[Charlie Baker]

Old school dependable professional, perhaps underrated, Eleanor Parker was born on this date 100 years ago.

Eleanor Parker on Wikipedia

[Suzn]

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Follow the Thread is a theme throughout June and July. I saw Bob Mackie do more than one of these, and thought it was going to be him throughout, but I was wrong: it's a series of knowledgeable guests.

If I am understanding Follow the Thread, it is a small discussion before and after the movies selected.  I've caught a few bits of it but don't/didn't want to watch the movies attached.  I watched a few minutes of Mahogany last night and that was all I could take.

I wish the discussion was available as a stand-alone, but doesn't seem to be.

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, Suzn said:

I wish the discussion was available as a stand-alone, but doesn't seem to be.

Right, but in a couple of cases I looked up the streaming version On Demand and found that the discussions before and after were there. So I could zip through the movie easily enough and just watch Before and After.

[Suzn]

3 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Right, but in a couple of cases I looked up the streaming version On Demand and found that the discussions before and after were there. So I could zip through the movie easily enough and just watch Before and After.

That works!  Thanks!

[Lady Whistleup]

11 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Then I tried to rewatch Taxi Driver, but I could not get through it, as brilliant as the writing, acting, cinematography, New York setting and score are.   At the time it came out I found it disturbing. This time in the wake of our now national weekly eruption by Travis Bickel types, I just couldn’t stomach it. I smashed the off button at the moment the bodega owner started whaling on the robber with a tire iron. 
Costume wise, Cybill Shepard’s DVF wrap dress was iconic. 

True, but every time I watch Taxi Driver I think Robert de Niro's Travis goes down as the greatest screen performance of all time. 

[Charlie Baker]

TCM wrapped the Star of the Month Judy Garland with, fittingly, her final two movies.  They did, as Ben points out, show her strengths as a dramatic actress. A Child Is Waiting is a rare outside project John Cassavetes took on as director, but the intensity and directness towards the subject matter, the treatment of mentally disabled children, suit him.  The whole cast is quite good, even if the particulars might be dated, as we are hopefully more enlightened now. 

I Could Go on Singing is a British-made, high-toned soap opera about a famous singer who wants to get to know the son she surrendered to his prominent physician father.  Jack Klugman and Aline MacMahon are over-qualified and of course very fine as the singer's aides, and  Gregory Phillips is very engaging as the boy.   Though he reportedly came to hate working with her, Dirk Bogarde and JG are powerful together, elevating the script.  And the in-concert numbers are gripping. 

I think I saw both of these on TV as a kid, but I wasn't as impressed as I was this go-round. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

Watching Small Town Girl with Jane Powell and Farley Granger. There's a bit where Bobby Van is trying to show Ann Miller his various talents in case she can help him get to Broadway. He starts by trying to portray a "leading man" with what sounds like a Cary Grant impression. Then he sings a little bit of "Wonder Why" in a way that also feels like it must be an impression but if so of whom? The only thing from the movie that seems to get discussed is his jumping dance, so I haven't come across any explanation.

[Rinaldo]

7 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Then he sings a little bit of "Wonder Why" in a way that also feels like it must be an impression but if so of whom? The only thing from the movie that seems to get discussed is his jumping dance, so I haven't come across any explanation.

Might it be Vic Damone? He had sung that song (with Jane Powell) in Rich, Young and Pretty two years earlier. The song was recorded by quite a few others, but Damone's seems to have done the best commercially. I know a Vic Damone impression doesn't cut much ice now, but it may have meant more then.

I find this a weird little movie, as MGM musicals go (though I didn't watch it this time around). It has a nonsinging male lead, some of the best material goes to the "second woman" (Ann Miller) not to mention a guest appearance by Nat King Cole, the sequence everybody really remembers is Bobby Van's hopping dance that's a self-contained scene with no introductory vocal, and the whole thing is wrapped up to the "Hallelujah Chorus."

Edited July 2, 2022 by Rinaldo

[SomeTameGazelle]

28 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

Might it be Vic Damone? He had sung that song (with Jane Powell) in Rich, Young and Pretty two years earlier. The song was recorded by quite a few others, but Damone's seems to have done the best commercially. I know a Vic Damone impression doesn't cut much ice now, but it may have meant more then.

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't see a strong resemblance but that may be just because Van doesn't seem to be going for a tenor voice ... but that also doesn't mean he wasn't trying to convey specific affectations. 

37 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I find this a weird little movie, as MGM musicals go (though I didn't watch it this time around). It has a consigning male lead, some of the best material goes to the "second woman" (Ann Miller) not to mention a guest appearance by Nat King Cole, the sequence everybody really remembers is Bobby Van's hopping dance that's a self-contained scene with no introductory vocal, and the whole thing is wrapped up to the "Hallelujah Chorus."

They didn't do enough to show Farley Granger and Jane Powell being suited to each other -- certainly not enough to offset her father's wise advice that they had known each other only 5 days. 

I came away thinking I would love to see a remake centered on the Ludwig character trying to figure out how to avoid marrying Cindy and get to Broadway. But even for a supporting role I would want someone more personable than Farley Granger appeared here. 

[Suzn]

Follow the Thread sucked me in to watching Funny Face and Belle du Jour and I had regrets for the waste of time.   I had seen Funny Face before but didn't remember how unpleasant I found most of it.  The Paris travelogue and the fashion photoshoot were both wonderful and the rest just so tiresome.  Fred Astaire was 30 years older than Audrey Hepburn and looked every minute of that; it wouldn't have been impossible for them to have chemistry, but they certainly didn't.  Fred didn't even have a good dance sequence and Audrey's dance in the coffee house was all kinds of cringeworthy as was a good deal of the movie.

Then there's Belle du Jour...  I thought it was just me that was unclear on what was real and what was fantasy but reading reviews on IMDB reassured me that many were confused and those who thought they knew had a range of views on it.  What's more, the director didn't seem clear on it or was not willing to say.

[Rinaldo]

19 hours ago, Suzn said:

Audrey's dance in the coffee house was all kinds of cringeworthy

John Mueller, in his book about Astaire's musical films, speculates that the fact that Audrey Hepburn had had dance training in her teen years led those making the movie to overestimate what she could handle choreographically. Whatever the reason, her usual gracefulness deserted her in that dance. (Though even Fred doesn't come off all that great in what dances he is given, compared to his usual standard.)

For my priorities, the good and bad of this movie have to do with the music. Good: the wonderful Gershwin songs, from the 1920s stage musical Funny Face, in which Fred and Adele Astaire had been the stars (and whose plot is entirely unrelated to that of the movie). Bad: the awful modern songs by others that got interpolated at crucial points, as if Gershwin isn't good enough. And Kay Thompson can take a hike too.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Rinaldo

[voiceover]

James Caan passed away yesterday.

This just really hit me hard.  Loved his Sonny Corleone, loved his comic turns in later films.

Prayers up for his family.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 7/3/2022 at 6:36 PM, Rinaldo said:

John Mueller, in his book about Astaire's musical films, speculates that the fact that Audrey Hepburn had had dance training in her teen years led those making the movie to overestimate what she could handle choreographically. Whatever the reason, her usual gracefulness deserted her in that dance. (Though even Fred doesn't come off all that great in what dances he is given, compared to his usual standard.)

For my priorities, the good and bad of this movie have to do with the music. Good: the wonderful Gershwin songs, from the 1920s stage musical Funny Face, in which Fred and Adele Astaire had been the stars (and whose plot is entirely unrelated to that of the movie). Bad: the awful modern songs by others that got interpolated at crucial points, as if Gershwin isn't good enough. And Kay Thompson can take a hike too.

Rinaldo I watched part of the movie, and I loved the fashions too. 

[Charlie Baker]

A really good appraisal that makes me want to seek out his movies.

Remembering James Caan

[ruby24]

We're doing a classic movie night fest soon and I've been given a choice between Hold Back the Dawn (1941) or So Proudly We Hail! (1943) as a Paulette Goddard feature. Any thoughts on which one of these is the better film?

[Charlie Baker]

They're both worthwhile, @ruby24.  For Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland and the Wilder/Brackett script and Mitchell Leisen  directing, in addition to Goddard, I would go with Hold Back the Dawn.

[Tom Holmberg]

Tonight TCM is showing a variety of Rock and Roll movies starting with "A Hard Days Night."  I love how obvious it is that the Beatles were really having fun being the Beatles.

[EtheltoTillie]

I like Hold Back the Dawn, but I haven't seen it in years.  I haven't seen the other one.

I enjoyed rewatching Rohmer's Summer last night.  Poor Delphine.  What a twitchy bundle of sad loneliness and neurosis. 

Edited July 12, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

I watched Joy in the Morning.  What a melodramatic piece of dated doodoo.  Also, I hate to see sixties hairstyles and costumes standing in for Roaring Twenties.  Poor (then) closeted Richard Chamberlain having to utter such loathsome lines about another character, the "sissy" florist.  The Bernard Hermann score sounded like he phoned it in from Vertigo.  I wonder how he was attached to such a crap production, but they also had Arthur Kennedy. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Tom Holmberg]

TCM is going to have change their name to Turner Crappy Movies after running "Tarzan, The Ape Man" (1981) yesterday.

[Rinaldo]

18 hours ago, Tom Holmberg said:

TCM is going to have change their name to Turner Crappy Movies after running "Tarzan, The Ape Man" (1981) yesterday.

Oh, crappy movies have long been a major pleasure of watching TCM. Leaving aside the serials, we can each compile a list. Mine would include all the beach movies, Return to Treasure Island, The Big Cube, The Cool Ones, and onward... it's a rich legacy.

[Charlie Baker]

And, yeesh, those serials...recently Saturday mornings have seen the two Batman serials, a Buck Rogers, and now a Flash Gordon, which will get interrupted for Summer under the Stars next month.  I guess audiences (for these mostly kids?) were less demanding, and it would seem George Lucas and Steven Spielberg got some inspiration from them.  Again, part of TCM legacy,

[Charlie Baker]

On CBS Sunday Morning, Ben talks to Ethan Hawke about his new documentary series on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

The Last Movie Stars?

[Milburn Stone]

On 7/3/2022 at 5:36 PM, Rinaldo said:

Bad [re Funny Face]: the awful modern songs by others that got interpolated at crucial points, as if Gershwin isn't good enough. And Kay Thompson can take a hike too.

"Think Pink" is pretty bad, but I always enjoy "Bonjour, Paris!" The locations help a lot, but the song carries its (fluffy) weight.

[Jan Spears]

On 7/2/2022 at 3:18 PM, Rinaldo said:

Might it be Vic Damone? He had sung that song (with Jane Powell) in Rich, Young and Pretty two years earlier. The song was recorded by quite a few others, but Damone's seems to have done the best commercially. I know a Vic Damone impression doesn't cut much ice now, but it may have meant more then.

I find this a weird little movie, as MGM musicals go (though I didn't watch it this time around). It has a nonsinging male lead, some of the best material goes to the "second woman" (Ann Miller) not to mention a guest appearance by Nat King Cole, the sequence everybody really remembers is Bobby Van's hopping dance that's a self-contained scene with no introductory vocal, and the whole thing is wrapped up to the "Hallelujah Chorus."

Small Town Girl is a perfect example of what sometimes happened with the M-G-M musicals - the studio figured out who was available on the lot and then tried to shoehorn all of them into the same movie. It's as if Ann Miller and Bobby Van have crashed landed from an entirely different (and more dynamic) M-G-M musical into a not terribly interesting one with Jane Powell and Farley Granger.

I wonder if Small Town Girl started life as a potential Jane Powell-Vic Damone vehicle but had to be repurposed because Damone was in the army from 1951-53. Post-army, Damone and Powell appeared together three times: Athena (1954) (although not paired together), Deep in My Heart (1954) and Hit the Deck (1955).

[Rinaldo]

14 hours ago, Jan Spears said:

Small Town Girl is a perfect example of what sometimes happened with the M-G-M musicals - the studio figured out who was available on the lot and then tried to shoehorn all of them into the same movie

Agreed, and other perfect examples are Give a Girl a Break (Debbie Reynolds, Bob Fosse, Kurt Kasznar, Marge & Gower Champion, all under contract -- though they did spring for a new Burton Lane / Ira Gershwin score) and especially The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, starring 4 contract players (Bobby Van, Reynolds, Fosse, Barbara Ruick), using older songs that MGM owned, filmed in black and white, and running a quick 72 minutes. If that doesn't keep expenses down while turning out product, nothing will.

[Jan Spears]

On 7/19/2022 at 9:59 AM, Rinaldo said:

Agreed, and other perfect examples are Give a Girl a Break (Debbie Reynolds, Bob Fosse, Kurt Kasznar, Marge & Gower Champion, all under contract -- though they did spring for a new Burton Lane / Ira Gershwin score)

I have a soft spot for Give a Girl a Break. The story is slight (even by M-G-M musicals standards) but who cares given the excellence of the dance numbers? The Marge & Gower Champion numbers ("Challenge Dance," "It Happens Every Time") and the Bob Fosse and Debbie Reynolds numbers ("In Our United State," "Balloon Dance") are outstanding. The Burton Lane/Ira Gershwin score is also much better than the movie's reputation would lead you to believe. It's a pity Rhino Records never got around to releasing a reconstructed and remastered version of the score in the 1990s or 2000s. Just listening to the DVD reveals numerous wonderful underscores in addition to the actual sung vocals.

In retrospect, Give a Girl Break reveals the fragile shape M-G-M's contract roster was in by 1953. The changes that had slowly been undermining the established studio system since the late-1940s had resulted in the studios and the A-list stars going their own ways once contracts had expired. By 1953, M-G-M was finding it harder to find two principal leads and then pair them with two secondary leads. Give a Girl a Break is the end result of a studio trying to construct a musical around four secondary leads.

Edited July 21, 2022 by Jan Spears

[Milburn Stone]

On 7/21/2022 at 6:28 PM, Jan Spears said:

I have a soft spot for Give a Girl a Break. The story is slight (even by M-G-M musicals standards) but who cares given the excellence of the dance numbers? The Marge & Gower Champion numbers ("Challenge Dance," "It Happens Every Time") and the Bob Fosse and Debbie Reynolds numbers ("In Our United State," "Balloon Dance") are outstanding. The Burton Lane/Ira Gershwin score is also much better than the movie's reputation would lead you to believe. It's a pity Rhino Records never got around to releasing a reconstructed and remastered version of the score in the 1990s or 2000s. Just listening to the DVD reveals numerous wonderful underscores in addition to the actual sung vocals.

In retrospect, Give a Girl Break reveals the fragile shape M-G-M's contract roster was in by 1953. The changes that had slowly been undermining the established studio system since the late-1940s had resulted in the studios and the A-list stars going their own ways once contracts had expired. By 1953, M-G-M was finding it harder to find two principal leads and then pair them with two secondary leads. Give a Girl a Break is the end result of a studio trying to construct a musical around four secondary leads.

A GIANT YES to your first paragraph, and a nod of acknowledgment to your second, while opining that the problems of MGM by 1953 had no effect, miraculously, on the quality of Give a Girl a Break. In addition to the numbers you cite, a favorite of mine is the one with Champion/Fosse/Kasznar doing that ingeniously "twisty" choreography. Add in a genuinely funny screenplay by Hackett & Goodrich, and brisk, humorous direction by Stanley Donen, and you have not just a good movie, but an underrated gem.

[Rinaldo]

I'm going to respond to @Jan Spears in some detail, not to be argumentative (because I totally agree) because so many elements bring responses to mind:

On 7/21/2022 at 7:28 PM, Jan Spears said:

I have a soft spot for Give a Girl a Break. The story is slight (even by M-G-M musicals standards)

And I hope it was clear that I'm fond of it too (and Dobie Gillis as well -- they're just both fascinating examples of what was going on). The story is not only "slight"... it dissolves into wispy arbitrariness at the end in a way one might suspect to be deliberately postmodern if it happened 40 years later: Which of our 3 potential leading ladies shall we choose? This one? no, she's chosen to leave the biz. OK, then that one? no, we can't find her. All right then, the other one will do. And there's our ending

Quote

In retrospect, Give a Girl Break reveals the fragile shape M-G-M's contract roster was in by 1953. The changes that had slowly been undermining the established studio system since the late-1940s had resulted in the studios and the A-list stars going their own ways once contracts had expired.

I have a feeling I've said this here before, but it must have been years ago: With all the books being written about this or that aspect of movies, we still don't have a thorough well-researched book about exactly who was under contract at each studio, and why, at any given time. Jeannine Basinger made a good start with describing the system in her book about the star system, but I still want to see the rosters. And how long did it endure? Apparently Universal was still keeping people under contract through the 1970s, but it was mostly for television purposes, supplying regular guest stars to all their drama series; Shirley Knight, Howard McGillin, and Sharon Gless (who claimed to be the last of the breed) have all talked a bit about this, but I want the whole story!

Quote

By 1953, M-G-M was finding it harder to find two principal leads and then pair them with two secondary leads. Give a Girl a Break is the end result of a studio trying to construct a musical around four secondary leads.

That's true of Dobie Gillis as well (maybe even more so, with the visibly and audibly cheaper production), though it seems odd to consider Debbie Reynolds a secondary lead, a year after her star billing in Singin' in the Rain. I would say we can see the transition happening in these two pictures (and in Hit the Deck), playing the lead in a very modest outing or being one of three leading ladies, as the studio confirms her viability before placing her as the lead in, e.g., a nonmusical romantic comedy opposite Frank Sinatra. Again, this is where I want to learn the details of contracts and career calculations!

________________________

It's not on TCM, but I think our regular viewers will be interested: Ethan Hawke's 6-episode series for HBOMax about Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward, The Last Movie Stars, is excellent. He had the cooperation of the family, including transcripts of interview tapes, but there's no shying away from difficult aspects of personal lives. We see Hawke Zooming with actor friends during lockdown and assigning roles to read from the transcripts (George Clooney reads Paul, Laura Linney reads Joanne, and Brooks Ashmanskas is hilariously dead-on as Gore Vidal). This aspect of the framework could have been embarrassingly self-regarding, but instead develops as a strengthening element, as Hawke exchanges reactions with Sam Rockwell or Billy Crudup. I gobbled it all up.

[Jan Spears]

4 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

the problems of MGM by 1953 had no effect, miraculously, on the quality of Give a Girl a Break.

I would add that the residual strength of the contract roster allowed M-G-M to prep and release Kiss Me Kate (w/ Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Tommy Rall, Bob Fosse and Bobby Van) concurrently with Give a Girl a Break.

3 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

With all the books being written about this or that aspect of movies, we still don't have a thorough well-researched book about exactly who was under contract at each studio, and why, at any given time. Jeannine Basinger made a good start with describing the system in her book about the star system, but I still want to see the rosters. And how long did it endure?

While far from "scientific", one way to get at this in M-G-M's case is to compare the "family photo" taken at the studio's 25th anniversary celebration in 1949 to the photo of the studio's contract players taken in 1954 for a Look Magazine feature. The former reveals the contract roster in all its glory (and size) while the latter reveals a lot of erosion in five years. It's not a perfect comparison because the 1949 photo was for a studio-driven event while the 1954 photo was just a snapshot in time of who was working on the studio lot that day. (From the 1954 photo you can deduce which musicals were in production based on the costumes people were wearing. So, Esther Williams and Howard Keel are in costume for Jupiter's Darling, Leslie Caron and Michael Wilding are in costume for The Glass Slipper, and Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Vic Damone look like they could be in costume for Athena. Also, the presence of Jose Ferrer in the photo suggests that Deep in My Heart was in production.)

3 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

it seems odd to consider Debbie Reynolds a secondary lead, a year after her star billing in Singin' in the Rain. I would say we can see the transition happening in these two pictures (and in Hit the Deck), playing the lead in a very modest outing or being one of three leading ladies, as the studio confirms her viability before placing her as the lead in, e.g., a nonmusical romantic comedy opposite Frank Sinatra.

I think Reynolds fell back to 'B' status in the studio hierarchy after Singin' in the Rain but slowly battled her way back to leading lady status with Give a Girl a Break, Athena and Hit the Deck.

[Charlie Baker]

I've only watched the first two episodes of The Last Movie Stars, but I'm in to the end. The framework of Hawke and his cohorts does threaten to get over-indulgent, but it hasn't happened so far.  And the transcripts and the readings of them are riveting, along with the beautifully chosen film clips.  A feast. 

[Charlie Baker]

Easy Rider, Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces

Bob Rafelson Dies at 89

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, Charlie Baker said:

Easy Rider, Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces

Bob Rafelson Dies at 89

While Rafelson should indeed be remembered as a guiding spirit behind the founding of BBS Productions, which produced The Last Picture Show, he didn't direct it. (That was the movie that made people take notice of its director Peter Bogdanovich.) 

[voiceover]

On 7/25/2022 at 8:18 AM, Charlie Baker said:

Easy Rider, Last Picture Show, Five Easy Pieces

Bob Rafelson Dies at 89

Can’t believe you left out The Monkees.

Sad news about David Warner!  Those who only know him from that smarter-than-his-boss role in Titanic should definitely check out his chilling Jack the Ripper opposite Malcolm McDowell’s HG Wells in Time After Time.

[Rinaldo]

39 minutes ago, voiceover said:

Those who only know him from that smarter-than-his-boss role in Titanic

...or his superbly smarmy Blifil in Tom Jones. (I saw him onstage once as Falstaff, in an RSC histories cycle.) He did in fact play more sympathetic roles than people sometimes remember -- I have fond memories of his Bob Cratchit in the George C. Scott telefilm of A Christmas Carol. But he is indeed wonderfully memorable as Jack the Ripper in the lovely Time after Time.