TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Miss Anne Thrope]

I would agree that Sinatra was probably not truly at rock bottom in the early 50s; but as you point out, he had come down a peg or three.  From the height of his stardom, he had farther to fall than the average bear. 

The combination of no record label, no movie contract, and morally unpopular behavior (for the time, and one was judged more harshly for indiscretions) driving down live performance ticket sales might have made Sinatra seem more down and out than he truly was  -- plus, everyone loves a good comeback story, so it's likely the depths of his fall and the extent of his rise from the ashes were exaggerated. 

Sinatra did make a couple of real stinker films -- The Kissing Bandit or Double Dynamite, anyone? -- but overall, he was in pretty good to very good movies up to this point (of making Meet Danny Wilson), so his bottoming out would be very open to debate.  If the legend is true that Johnny Fontane in The Godfather is based on Sinatra's getting the part of Maggio in From Here to Eternity, it's possible that without his friends' intervention he could have languished and perhaps actually bottomed out with regards to movies, at least. 

In addition, Sinatra had long associated with organized crime figures before Las Vegas was even a thing, and he'd always be able to play Vegas -- in fact, helping build it up by playing there --  so I think he would never actually have been down and out musically.  

I was born in 1961 but Sinatra was a presence in our house for as long as I can remember, and I've never really been a fan (that happens when something is shoved down your throat).  And I did find watching Frank Sinatra star in "The Frank Sinatra Story" (by way of doing Meet Danny Wilson) kind of trippy. 

And, a very happy 116th birthday to my gal, Joan Blondell. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Miss Anne Thrope

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 8/28/2022 at 9:23 AM, Rinaldo said:

Or maybe just sensible. It's always complicated interpreting documents of the past, and distressingly easy to misinterpret them in light of current sensibilities.

That's really helpful.  I'm terrible at sussing out subtext and cloaked meanings, so when I run across someone who claims to have done it, I can tend to give it credence just by its mere existence, figuring that I was just too dim to get it.  But that might not always be the case, especially in a situation like this. 

Thanks!

[Charlie Baker]

New York Times piece on Michael Schulz:

Longest Running Black Director in History?

Edited September 2, 2022 by Charlie Baker

[Milburn Stone]

Was able to watch the first half last night of Patterns, the movie version of the 1950s live-TV drama written by Rod Serling. Harrowing! I would have continued watching but for time; will finish it tonight probably. Set in the world of Manhattan big business. With not one thing supernatural about it, it's as scary as any Twilight Zone ever made. (And works very well as a film, despite having its origins on live TV.)

Van Heflin, Ed Begley, and Everett Sloane (never stronger). Support by Elizabeth Wilson and Beatrice Straight.

[Annber03]

Oooh, I'd love to see that! Your description has me very intrigued to check it out. 

[Charlie Baker]

Patterns is terrifically written, directed, and acted,  Similar in subject to Executive Suite, but even better.

[EtheltoTillie]

Agree--Patterns is terrific.  Saw it a while ago. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Ed Begley always looks sinister.  Ed Begley, Jr., doesn't have the same look at all FWIW. 

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Ed Begley always looks sinister.  Ed Begley, Jr., doesn't have the same look at all FWIW. 

Yeah. I don't see senior as sinister usually, but every time I see junior, I wonder how did that guy come out of that guy.

[Milburn Stone]

Finished Patterns last night. It started me thinking it was pretty daring for 1955 (the year of the teleplay) and even 1956 (the year of the movie). 

What lies beneath the drama is essentially an anti-McCarthy fable. (I use fable not in a pejorative sense but in the Aesop's Fable, story meant to teach a moral lesson, sense.) It dares--and I do think it was somewhat daring then--to say, "Not everything business does is good for people." That could get you in trouble then! McCarthyism had only begun to die the year before. 1955 was probably the first year you could put a Patterns on the airwaves and still have a television or movie career. (Broadway remained relatively untouched by the anti-Communist hysteria.) 

As we know, Serling made a whole career out of anti-McCarthy fables, especially after McCarthy himself died in 1957; practically every episode of The Twilight Zone is an anti-McCarthy fable cloaked in the thinnest veil of science fiction. Sadly, we go through cycles in which his moral lessons cease to be anodyne and need to be taught again.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Now that DirecTV has fixed my captions, I can watch the film noirs (films noir?) again.  I always watch Eddie's introduction and closing first, to see if I want to watch the movie.  Well, Saturday's offering, Hit and Run, sounded like a stinker so I passed.  However, I noticed that there was a lot of time left in that time slot, so I decided to see what they filled it with.

What a gift!  Shake Hands With Danger, showing all the mayhem that can happen when you're not careful around big Caterpillar earth-moving equipment.  It had a theme song, sung by a guy with a deep, dire voice, and a line like "That's why they call him three-finger Lou." 

It was both hilarious and harrowing.  A guy falling from a really tall machine, shown plummeting to the ground and then lying mangled where he hit.  Another guy deciding to take a shortcut (never take a shortcut!) and grease this thing with a handful of grease instead of the proper tool, but it was parts that moved in opposite directions, creating a guillotine.  I had to cover my eyes as he inserted his arm in there, and they showed it twice. 

But it was actually effective, showing there's a difference between telling a guy not to start the engine while you're down in there fixing something, and actually taking the key with you.  The guy gave a thumbs-up when you motioned that you were going in--what could go wrong?

All in all, an unexpectedly delightful 20 minutes.

[Charlie Baker]

This book would appear to be tailor-made for obsessive TCMers. Anybody know any? :-)

Hollywood: The Oral History

[Miss Anne Thrope]

Thank you -- just started my Xmas list. 

[mariah23]

Marsha Hunt passed away Wednesday.

[Charlie Baker]

I posted last month about Noir Alley showing Raw Deal, in which Marsha Hunt is excellent, followed by Eddie Muller's short The Grand Inquisitor, where she had the lead, in her 90s, and gave a fine, sharp performance.   She worked, despite being blacklisted and never having a big breakthrough, but deserved a higher profile. RIP.

[Rinaldo]

20 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

This book would appear to be tailor-made for obsessive TCMers. Anybody know any? :-)

Hollywood: The Oral History

Just pre-ordered it, thank you! Jeanine Basinger as co-author is a guarantee of a good read, in my experience, even if the "oral history" words aren't hers. She knows the terrain of the studio system.

[Charlie Baker]

TCM Remembers Marsha Hunt 

[voiceover]

It’s a headscratcher — every other obit mentions this role of Marsha’s, but TCM Remembers left it out.  Which irritates the crap outta me.

1940’s Pride & Prejudice is in my Top 10, all-time, and Marsha was a sweet, nerdy Mary Bennet in it (as she watches her mother steam open the letter meant for Jane, she scolds, “It’s against the principles of the Magna Carta!”).

Rest in peace, Marsha.  And (if you’ve seen that film, you’ll get this joke): Sparkle away!

[Charlie Baker]

Jean-Luc Godard Dies at 91

[mariah23]

The trailer for Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is out.  One word to describe it: INSANITY.

Edited September 13, 2022 by mariah23

[graybrown bird]

God, the costumes in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice.  I just can't get past them.

[Charlie Baker]

I was not a huge Godard fan, though I love Breathless.  But there's no doubting his significance.  The TCM Remembers has some lovely images, and the the New York Times appreciation is worthwhile.

[EtheltoTillie]

18 hours ago, graybrown bird said:

God, the costumes in the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice.  I just can't get past them.

Well, yes, they're wrong era, and it departs from the book somewhat, but I still love the movie. 

Edited September 14, 2022 by EtheltoTillie

[Inquisitionist]

On 9/13/2022 at 8:57 AM, mariah23 said:

The trailer for Damien Chazelle’s Babylon is out.  One word to describe it: INSANITY.

My word is "blergh."

[Charlie Baker]

Janis Paige turns 100 today.

[Milburn Stone]

19 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

Janis Paige turns 100 today.

God love her.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 8/23/2021 at 6:08 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

Here's a doozy from Gloria Grahame Day.  The Cobweb.

The cable banner description reads like a parody of a real movie:  "The director (Richard Widmark) of a psychiatric institute presides over the crisis of selecting new curtains for the library." 

I've seen this description on my DirecTV grid many times and always laughed but never watched it.  Until yesterday.

And improbably enough, I think "The director of a psychiatric institute presides over the crisis of selecting new curtains for the library" is spot on. 

On 8/23/2021 at 6:08 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

so she sneaks in and hangs her own hideous set of drapes and triggers a crisis.

What?  I loved her drapes.

The very last image and line in the movie was...odd.

[Milburn Stone]

15 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

I've seen this description on my DirecTV grid many times and always laughed but never watched it.  Until yesterday.

I've never made it through The Cobweb, despite that it has everything I'd want from a movie. Gloria Grahame! Oscar Levant! Directed by Vincente Minnelli!

Mainly I'm commenting because I too love the snarky plot summaries the good folks of TCM will sometimes write. You can never tell the movies they're going to choose to have a bit of fun with, but there's never a doubt in my mind as to whether the twisted humor is intentional. They've got some clever young movie-lovers behind the scenes, and they know what they're doing.

Edited September 17, 2022 by Milburn Stone

[StatisticalOutlier]

3 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I've never made it through The Cobweb, despite that it has everything I'd want from a movie. Gloria Grahame! Oscar Levant! Directed by Vincente Minnelli!

I know!  That's what makes the whole thing so crazy.  Fittingly enough.

Another head-scratcher is Lillian Gish's character's name is Vicky Inch.  It's fiction, so the sky's the limit when it comes to naming characters, and somebody selected "Inch" over every other name on the planet for her last name.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 9/17/2022 at 8:09 AM, Milburn Stone said:

They've got some clever young movie-lovers behind the scenes, and they know what they're doing.

After the repeat of the film noir offering this morning, there was a TCM Original Production called The Idea of America--Personal Journeys & Perceptions from American Film, where immigrants talked about how American movies influenced their decision to immigrate or their experience as immigrants.

At the beginning of it, they have sort of a montage of talking heads before they start concentrating on individuals, interspersed with images from films.  One immigrant is talking about how he would go to the movies every Saturday, how he was so enamored with the movies.  There's a few seconds of Tab Hunter kissing Sandra Dee, and then of a movie audience.  Only...the movie audience scene is from Diner, and it's Steve Guttenburg and Kevin Bacon not actually watching the movie but looking sideways down their row, because it's when Boogie had put his wiener up through the bottom of the popcorn box his date was eating from. 

There must be hundreds if not thousands of shots of a movie audience to choose from, most of which would have the audience looking at the screen.  But someone chose this one.

[Charlie Baker]

Saw a promo, fleetingly, for Mario Cantone co-hosting "creepy movies:" Mondays in October with Ben.  He did well last time.

[Tom Holmberg]

Later this month TCM will be running "Slither" (1973) a somewhat forgotten comedy starring James Caan and Sally Kellerman (a "shaggy dog story").  Worth watching if you've never seen it.

[StatisticalOutlier]

I'm looking over the October schedule, and there's a documentary about Marsha Hunt called Marsha Hunt's Sweet Adversity showing on Thursday/Friday October 13/14 (it would span midnight depending on the time zone, making a quick heads-up more difficult).  The description is: "After Marsha Hunt's successful acting career was destroyed when she was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, she became an agent of change for good all over the world."
 

[Sarah 103]

I watched Crime School. It amazes me that Leo Gorcey never played a young James Cagney. They worked for the same studio at the same time. The resemblance is uncanny.

Something that I think is a facinating decision the creative team made is that the parents of the Dead End Kids usually have an ethnic accent or a trace of one, but the kids have the same New York accent. I understand why that's the case, but I think it's a fun detail. 

I enjoyed the movie. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

Idly watching Sally with Marilyn Miller and Joe E Brown. I am not familiar with Marilyn Miller so I was surprised to read about her biopic Look for the Silver Lining and to learn it was written by Phoebe Ephron, Nora's mother. 

[tennisgurl]

Next Monday has some weird fun creepy movies coming, including a lesser known John Carpenter movie, The Fog, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh. Its very much worth your time if you like your horror with a lot of low budget camp. As excited as I am for them to start showing the classics, Dracula, Frankenstein, House on Haunted Hill, I like that they throw out some quirkier horror movies as well.  

[EtheltoTillie]

TCM fans, take note.  They don't seem to be running the Mario Cantone segments and movies on Watch TCM, and I missed one.  I will be recording these for the rest of the month.  Possessed was a very interesting movie--combination of noir and mental illness porn.

[Charlie Baker]

Marilyn Miller was a big musical theatre star, and in Sunny and Sally, even if they are creaky early talkie musicals, you can see why,

[Charlie Baker]

Possessed is one of JC's best, I think.   I also dug how much Ben and Mario liked Dead Ringer, a later Bette Davis vehicle that doesn't get a lot of respect.

[Rinaldo]

Marilyn Miller is one of those musical stage performers, like Gertrude Lawrence, who were widely adored as special charismatic stars in a way that can be difficult to substantiate through their film work. Only in "Wild Rose" in Sally (coincidentally the only segment for which the original color film survives) do I see the magic happen, and understand.

Are there any others who belong in this category? 

[Jan Spears]

On 10/5/2022 at 9:36 AM, tennisgurl said:

Next Monday has some weird fun creepy movies coming, including a lesser known John Carpenter movie, The Fog, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Janet Leigh. Its very much worth your time if you like your horror with a lot of low budget camp.

I second this. The Fog doesn't have the same name recognition that some of Carpenter's other efforts do but it does have a deserved following. It's very atmospheric and Carpenter uses the isolated, windswept coastal setting to maximum effect.

In addition to Curtis and Leigh, genre favorites Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins, Hal Holbrook, Nancy Loomis and Charles Cyphers are also on hand. Barbeau, in particular, contributes a lot to the film in her role as a radio DJ who operates out of a converted lighthouse looking out on the ocean. She's the one who has to keep the coastal village of Antonio Bay informed about "the fog" once it comes ashore. It's a tough part because Barbeau spends most of the movie without scene partners to act with.

Apparently, Carpenter deemed the first cut to be unsatisfactory so cast and crew went back to film a lot of inserts. You can notice it in the final cut because certain plot points don't necessarily stand up to close inspection. But who cares? The Fog is a fun little horror movie that's perfect for the Halloween season.

Edited October 7, 2022 by Jan Spears

[Milburn Stone]

18 hours ago, Jan Spears said:

The Fog doesn't have the same name recognition that some of Carpenter's other efforts do but it does have a deserved following.

For the last 42 years, a friend and I have found occasion to say this to each other: "Funny... the wind's blowin in from the west; but the fog's comin in from the east."

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

For the last 42 years, a friend and I have found occasion to say this to each other: "Funny... the wind's blowin in from the west; but the fog's comin in from the east."

Now I'll have to watch it, and I'll have to make Mr. Outlier watch it with me, because I want to be finding occasions to say, "Funny... the wind's blowin in from the west; but the fog's comin in from the east."

[Jan Spears]

6 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

For the last 42 years, a friend and I have found occasion to say this to each other: "Funny... the wind's blowin in from the west; but the fog's comin in from the east."

"Hey . . . there's a fog bank out there!"

So many great lines in The Fog!

[BooksRule]

I have my DVR set to record a whole bunch of stuff on TCM this month.  Horror movies ('The Howling', 'The Brood', 'It's Alive!', 'Carnival of Souls', and many others) and some cheesy sci-fi ('Wild Wild Planet', 'War of the Planets', 'The Green Slime')

I noticed that one of my favorites is being aired this month.  I have it on DVD, but I recommend 'Two on a Guillotine' if you've never seen it. Scary movie with some humor.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 10/5/2022 at 2:38 PM, Rinaldo said:

Marilyn Miller is one of those musical stage performers, like Gertrude Lawrence, who were widely adored as special charismatic stars in a way that can be difficult to substantiate through their film work. Only in "Wild Rose" in Sally (coincidentally the only segment for which the original color film survives) do I see the magic happen, and understand.

Are there any others who belong in this category? 

For me, I'd say Al Jolson and Frank Fay.

[hypnotoad]

Quote

The Fog is a fun little horror movie that's perfect for the Halloween season.

The Fog has always been one of my favorites! No, it isn't really all that scary (a few jump scares get me) but it's the atmosphere that holds the movie together.

Quote

It's a tough part because Barbeau spends most of the movie without scene partners to act with.

Agreed. She is terrific in this movie.

I especially enjoy the beginning with John Houseman - using that voice to great effect. And the scene in the gas station/convenience store.

This movie may not get mentioned along side many better known Carpenter films, but I think it's well worth a watch. Do not even bother with the remake. Uggghh.

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, hypnotoad said:

Do not even bother with the remake. Uggghh.

I didn't know there had been a remake, so got a pretty good chuckle looking it up on IMDb -- the rating there is 3.7 (the original is rated 6.8).  I like the original, as I do quite a few films written and/or produced by Debra Hill.  And I love what a nurturer of talent and advocate for women working as writers, producers, and directors she was.  She was an under-recognized force in Hollywood (exhibit A being how integral she was to the success of Halloween, as its producer and co-writer [who wrote virtually all the dialogue for the female characters], yet many act like John Carpenter did everything).  Fucking cancer; she was only 54 when she died (and after needing both legs amputated).

Edited October 9, 2022 by Bastet

[Jan Spears]

9 hours ago, hypnotoad said:

I especially enjoy the beginning with John Houseman - using that voice to great effect.

There are several great voices in The Fog. Adrienne Barbeau's voice is pitch perfect for a character who works into the wee hours of the morning as a DJ at a jazz station. And Hal Holbrook has that impressive delivery as Father Malone.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Jan Spears

[Rinaldo]

A few interesting titles coming up this week: not recommendations per se, but "worth catching if they sound like your kind of thing."

On 10/1/2022 at 3:36 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

Later this month TCM will be running "Slither" (1973) a somewhat forgotten comedy starring James Caan and Sally Kellerman (a "shaggy dog story").  Worth watching if you've never seen it.

Also with other distinctive people of the era like Allen Garfield, Louise Lasser, Peter Boyle, Richard B. Shull.

And immediately after it, continuing a possible theme of "nice little 70s flicks you may have missed," is Corvette Summer, a coming-of-age anecdote with Mark Hamill trying to track down his stolen car, and Annie Potts as a friendly hooker. Also with Eugene Roche and TK Carter. This was filmed between the first two Star Wars movies, and Hamill's facial scarring from his automobile accident (The Empire Strikes Back created an incident to explain it) is evident.

After that, the apparent theme for several hours is "afterlife movies." Of these, the one I especially like is Bedazzled. The comedy team of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore play respectively the Devil and a short-order cook who gets 7 chances to invent a new life that will allow him to make an impression on the object of his adoration, Eleanor Bron (otherwise known from Help! and Two for the Road). Also with a cameo by Raquel Welch, aptly cast as Lust. The structure means that it's largely a series of sketches, but I find them very funny, and director Stanley Donen keeps the timing lively.

On Thursday morning, Roberta is a Rogers-Astaire movie that isn't shown as often as some of the others, but I think it's marvelous. Besides a great Jerome Kern score and the presence of Irene Dunne to participate in singing it, you can see Fred and Ginger finding their stride as a great dance team.

That afternoon, The Young Girls of Rochefort. For those who know it, I need say no more. In all its inept goofiness, it's endlessly rewatchable, at least for me. (Immediately before it, its companion piece The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which is genuinely good, for those on the wavelength of a sentimental French pop opera; it's not for everyone, I've discovered.)

Friday seems to be a Farley Granger day. I may try one I've never seen before, but the standout will surely be Strangers on a Train, essential viewing for those who've discovered they like Hitchcock but haven't yet explored very far. Granger and, especially, Robert Walker are outstanding.

Edited October 10, 2022 by Rinaldo