TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I think you'll all appreciate this, uh, review of White Christmas, from the Tom and Lorenzo website: http://tomandlorenzo...hite-christmas/

Their reposting of that review every year is one of my most cherished Christmas traditions.

[Gemma Violet]

I just discovered this thread so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I never miss Brief Encounter.  It's one of my all time favorite movies.  I must have seen it 25 or 30 times.  It just played again a couple of weeks ago on TCM. It's a very simple story of two people (who are married to others) meeting by chance and developing feelings for one another over a short period of time.

Edited December 29, 2014 by Gemma Violet

[Athena]

I just discovered this thread so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I never miss Brief Encounter.  It's one of my all time favorite movies.  I must have seen it 25 or 30 times.  It just played again a couple of weeks ago on TCM. It's a very simple story of two people (who are married to others) meeting by chance and developing feelings for one another over a short period of time.

 

I love this movie too. I like David Lean a lot, but whenever I think of him and my favourite movie of his, this wins over Doctor Zhivago (which was visually good) and Lawrence of Arabia (which I also really liked). It's such an emotional and poignant film.

[jah1986]

So last night I caught two interesting movies on TCM. The first starred Rod Steiger, I came in at the middle but it almost seemed to be a remake or rip-off of Five Came Back. Anyone know the name?

 

The second is what really got me though, Undercurrent, starring Katherine Hepburn and Robert Taylor.  I have never heard of this movie and again I missed the very beginning and I think that would have helped a lot. I had no idea what Robert Taylor's character was up until it became abundantly clear. And then Robert Mitchum showed up and his casting alone solved one mystery.  It wasn't a great movie but it wasn't bad either. I'm not sure I've seen Katherine Hepburn play that type of character before. I would love to see it from the beginning.

[mariah23]

Sad News: Luise Rainer has died.

[Bastet]

TCM already had a 105th (!) birthday tribute planned for Rainer on January 12, so I'm sure that will be turned into some sort of memorial.

 

It seems she was active until nearly the end, spotted out and about in London.

 

The second is what really got me though, Undercurrent, starring Katherine Hepburn and Robert Taylor.  I have never heard of this movie and again I missed the very beginning and I think that would have helped a lot. I had no idea what Robert Taylor's character was up until it became abundantly clear. And then Robert Mitchum showed up and his casting alone solved one mystery.  It wasn't a great movie but it wasn't bad either. I'm not sure I've seen Katherine Hepburn play that type of character before. I would love to see it from the beginning.

 

I don't hate that film like many people I know, but I don't think it works.  Which is disappointing, because I like when studio system actors get to play against type, but the execution just falls short.  Hepburn isn't bad in the role, but she doesn't seem fully comfortable in it, and she said she wasn't happy with her performance.  And Vincente Minnelli said Mitchum wasn't comfortable with his role, which I think shows even more than Hepburn. 

Edited December 30, 2014 by Bastet

[aradia22]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEPvSK5RcL8

 

Stumbled upon this on youtube. It took about a minute for it to click. Did Rock Hudson do a lot of musical things or was this an aberration?

[vb68]

 

TCM already had a 105th (!) birthday tribute planned for Rainer on January 12, so I'm sure that will be turned into some sort of memorial.

That makes me feel better.  I knew tonight was In Memoriam night tonight, and it was too late to be changing the schedule.

[Julia]

I hope they edit her in to TCM Remembers.

[Bastet]

I hope they edit her in to TCM Remembers.

 

I do, too.  They always include scenes (the atmospheric shots, especially) that can be easily removed to add in someone who dies between the first release and the end of the year, and it's cheaper than it has ever been to make changes, so I hope they edit the 2014 package so that she's there for posterity.

[Julia]

I just saw a pretty little sepia-toned TCM Remembers.Fingers crossed.

Imagine being thirty, having all that behind you and seventy five years left to go.

[Rinaldo]

Did Rock Hudson do a lot of musical things or was this an aberration?

 

Not a lot, but one or two onstage, in the LA area or perhaps in a limited tour. I haven't time to research right now, but the titles I recall are I Do, I Do!, and On the Twentieth Century. The former may have been with Carol Burnett (they seem to have been friends offstage).

[Julia]

Rock Hudson toured as King Arthur in Camelot.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Julia

[Coffeecup]

But the older Fonda delivered some original, startling performances too. Like his villain-to-end-them-all in Once Upon a Time in the West.

Agree!  Fonda was so different in that role that I could hardly believe it was him. That was an outstanding example of how casting against type can result in a great performance. Fonda, usually the hero, made a totally convincing villain.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

So last night I caught two interesting movies on TCM. The first starred Rod Steiger, I came in at the middle but it almost seemed to be a remake or rip-off of Five Came Back. Anyone know the name?

Back from Eternity.  It's a remake of Five Came Back, as you noticed, done by the same director, John Farrow.  While I prefer the earlier version  (nothing wrong with the later version, really, I guess - I just find it kind of stiff compared to the prewar one) it's interesting that Farrow felt strongly enough about the story to film it twice.

[voiceover]

Watched much of the the New Year's Eve rotation, and am glad I did, if only for the sight of Robert in a tux...YUM.  There is a man who looks gooooood in formal wear!

Edited January 3, 2015 by voiceover

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Watched much of the the New Year's Eve rotation, and am glad I did, if only for the sight of Robert

Every New Year's that involves Robert Osborne is a great New Year's. 

[voiceover]

 A word for my beloved Rudolph...

Moran of the Lady Letty works pretty well until she puts on the dress.   Then it seems to drain all the life out of her.  Such a sweet moment -- the deathbed gift to the girl a little anxious about her femininity (a little like Paulette Goddard's character in Reap the Wild Wind)-- should have been really something, and instead, bleahhhh, the movie wilts.  

Except for the crew turning decorously  away during The Kiss...hilarious.

 

Valentino was occasionally cursed by tepid leading ladies.  Luckily, he smiles in every film, and the moment that happens, et voila, the movie's saved.

Edited January 6, 2015 by voiceover

[Charlie Baker]

I don't have the time to go on at great length (as is my wont), but I did want to note two items I thoroughly enjoyed from TCM recent schedule:

 

The More the Merrier, with great chemistry between Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn earning that Oscar by making a role that could come off as insufferable look smooth and easy. How to do a romantic comedy. Oh, and there's actually funny stuff in it apart from the romance.

 

Employees' Entrance, snappy and tough, with young and gorgeous Loretta Young, and never better Warren William.

[Rinaldo]

The More the Merrier is a gem. There are lovely little scenes in it, of an offhand incidental quality that I don't expect to see in movies of that period (my ignorance possibly). Like Jean and Joel sitting on the front stoop in the summer night, having a conversation fraught with subtext.

 

Joel McCrea is my personal nominee for Most Unjustly Forgotten Star of Yesteryear. I know he isn't really forgotten; he was in some classics, and movie buffs know about him. But when the great male stars of the period are listed (like Grant, Cooper, Tracy, Gable) his name rarely gets cited. But in addition to the looks and charisma of a star, he always got the most out of his material, helped his costars come across at their best, was effortlessly funny or romantic or tough as needed... he had it all.

 

(I admit to a bias: The Palm Beach Story and Ride the High Country are on my short list of all-time favorites.)

[Julia]

I want to make so many people in movies and TV watch Sullivan's Travels. Some of them under duress, if necessary.

[Crisopera]

Couldn't agree more about Joel McCrea.  The More the Merrier is probably my all-time favorite romantic comedy.  That scene on the stoop!  I'm always kind of surprised that it got past the censors.  Sizzling hot.

 

And he even had chemistry with Veronica Lake in Sullivan's Travels.  Preston Sturges was a miracle worker - he actually brought out some animation in her, which no one else could seem to do (although Rene Clair did pretty well with her in I Married a Witch  - she probably should have done more comedy).

[King of Birds]

Looked back and didn't see this mentioned. Ken Levine, writer-director-broadcaster, blogged about how he got his gig on TCM for the film series this month on Neil Simon.

 

How I got to be a TCM host

My day as Robert Osborne

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Joel McCrea is my personal nominee for Most Unjustly Forgotten Star of Yesteryear.

Agreed, of course.  I adore him in everything and while I know I've raved about Ride the High Country before it doesn't hurt to rave about it again.  A masterpiece. The More the Merrier, Foreign Correspondent,  Palm Beach  Story and Sullivan's Travels, too, natch.  I even love him in all those shitheel beefcake roles from the early 30's where he knocks up somebody like Joan Crawford and abandons her :)  Bird of Paradise!  The Most Dangerous Game!  The challenge would be to try and think of something I didn't like him in.

[mariah23]

I HATE reporting news like this: Rod Taylor has died.

[Rinaldo]

while I know I've raved about Ride the High Country before it doesn't hurt to rave about it again.  

We can rave about it together. I'm not really a huge fan of Westerns in general, except when a particular movie transcends the genre somehow, and Ride the High Country absolutely does. A beautiful, simple, humane story with McCrea, Raymond Scott, and luminous 21-year-old Mariette Hartley in her first film. And gorgeous locations that make for a stunning final moment.

[Julia]

Fire up the DVR. It's Luise Rainer day.

[PaulaO]

Recorded The Good Earth and watched it  last night.  I've never seen it but it's been on my list.  Lord, that was an excellent movie.  Muni and Rainer's performances were just stunning.  I can see why she won the Oscar.  Not many lines but her face (as well as Muni's) was so expressive.  It got a bit tedious at points, the locust invasion could have been a bit tighter and Walter Connolly was annoying but overall I haven't enjoyed a movie this much in years.  It was just a gorgeous movie.  And yes, I cried when O-Lan died.

Edited January 13, 2015 by PaulaO

[Julia]

I know it's a document of its time, and the casting is problematic in representational terms, but wow, Luise Rainer and Paul Muni were extraordinary, and The Good Earth is a really easy move to get lost in.

[aradia22]

 

I know it's a document of its time, and the casting is problematic in representational terms

I tried to watch it once. I couldn't get past it. Also, I think I'm just not built for watching epics. 

[ratgirlagogo]

It's been a while since I saw The Good Earth and I don't feel any real need to see it again. But  I do get teary just thinking about Luise Rainier as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfield.  I know the telephone scene is pure manipulative hokey Oscar bait, and plenty of people are pissed that she won the Oscar for it over Garbo in Camille.    But it really gets me every single time in exactly the weepy Hollywood way in which it was intended. 

[Julia]

Well, you could make a case that Camille was two very, very beautiful people starring in some pure manipulative hokey Oscar bait of their own ;)

[Bastet]

I don't have a problem with people being pissed she won the Lead Actress Oscar that year, especially since she should have been in the new Supporting Actress category to start with, but I do have a problem with people blaming her for it.  Take it up with Louis B. Mayer and the voters he swayed.

 

But I digress.  That telephone call scene does, indeed, do everything it is supposed to do, and wonderfully. 

 

The "yellowface" casting in The Good Earth is a big stumbling block, and before I made myself tackle it I had forced myself to sit through the horrid Dragon Seed for Katharine Hepburn, so it took me a while to do.  I was glad I did.  It's surprising how well it came together, since the film started with one producer and director and ended with different ones.

 

But it's uncomfortable to watch, which I've only done twice; the cast did a terrific job, but Anna May Wong should have been O-Lan (and good on her for refusing the awful Dragon Lady role).

[voiceover]

I didn't know about Rod Taylor until last night's TCM Remembers -- I was expecting it to be for Luise R. -- it was a sock to the gut.

He sure looked like hell in Inglorious Basterds, but in the 60s...yum.  Robert Taylor/Ray Millandesque, I always thought.  My thoughts & prayers to his family & friends.

 

Rene Clair did pretty well with [Veronica Lake] in I Married a Witch

 

One of the cutest movies ever...I can't believe it's not on DVD!

[Wiendish Fitch]

 

One of the cutest movies ever...I can't believe it's not on DVD!

 

Actually, it is! I Married a Witch was released on Criterion DVD (and I think blu-ray) a year or two ago! The restoration looks glorious. I think it's unfair Veronica Lake doesn't get her due as an actress. Her acting style was startlingly modern, and she had that wonderful, husky voice and such a strong presence… hard to believe she was only 21 when she made I Married a Witch!

[Julia]

and like the rest of the Criterion collection, it's on Hulu. 

 

Thanks for that, it wasn't the last time I looked...

[Crs97]

Oh, I am so sad about Rod Taylor.  I loved him in Sunday in New York.

[voiceover]

Wiendish!! thanks for the news!!  I take a little credit for this, as I faked several IDs at the TCM site, in order to vote for that film to make the DVD leap.

*runs off to buy it*

[elle]

Oh, I am so sad about Rod Taylor.  I loved him in Sunday in New York.

I do too!  Poor Robert Culp didn't stand a chance. That movie is fun time capsule.

 

He really made the movie "The Time Machine" the classic that it is. (do not except any substitutes)  And I remember it  was my (non movie trivia) husband to point out that Rod Taylor did the voice of Pongo in "101 Dalmations"

 

Also, he made a memorable character, no pun intended, in the Twilight Zone episode "And When the Sky Was Opened".

[voiceover]

Ahhh, The Goodbye Girl...adored it when it came out; thrilled for Dreyfuss when he won the Oscar (Burton was the sentimental favorite that year, but I was a teen, and didn't know from sentiment).

 

Decades went by before I saw it again -- a couple of years ago on TCM -- and I was happy to find that I loved it as much (just in a different way) then I remembered.  God, he was fabulous.  The transition from dorky actor to charming heartthrob happened seamlessly.  Plus, he was funny as hell.

[Charlie Baker]

Goodbye Girl holds up pretty well--one of Simon's best scripts, and yes, Dreyfuss was at his peak. I go back and forth over Marsha Mason, but she's solid opposite Dreyfuss.  Quinn Cummings stops just short of being an insufferable movie kid in the movie (YMMV.)

 

Interesting to see Ms. Mason in successive meaty Simon roles last night--she does her best in Chapter Two but that movie just doesn't work, and not just because James Caan is all wrong for it.  Only watched some of Only When I Laugh--she shows some darker notes in her range in that one.  And the serious stuff looks like it works better than in Chapter Two.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

She was married to Simon, he had to give her good roles :)

 I think you kind of have to assume that he wrote them for her..

[Rinaldo]

Well, as Ken Levine said, Chapter Two was literally about her -- her marriage to Neil Simon, so soon after the death of his beloved first wife. He has since written that she was dubious about his turning it into a play, but in any case wasn't going to play the role onstage (Anita Gillette did). But by the time the movie was made, she'd achieved enough distance to undertake it.

 

I didn't stay up for Only When I Laugh, but I agree that that's a more interesting piece. For one thing, it was adapted from a failed play, The Gingerbread Lady (Maureen Stapleton played the part then and won a Tony for it) from a decade earlier. Though the overall story isn't hugely changed, the tone becomes more optimistic. Three of the actors were Oscar-nominated, but for my money the best performance wasn't: Kristy MacNichol as the daughter.

 

I'm also reminded of the parody produced by SCTV on its Christmas episode, "Neil Simon's Nutcracker Suite." Among others, Eugene Levy played Judd Hirsch, Rick Moranis was Richard Dreyfuss (doing his "list of things I don't like" speech), and Andrea Martin was Marsha Mason, crying constantly.

[voiceover]

Only When I Laugh: A reminder of how terrific Joan Hackett was, and all those great supporting possibilities we were denied by her early death.

 

A couple of other notes on Goodbye Girl:  that last scene on the phone, in the rain, is one of my favorites.  He doesn't even get irritated with her turning him down -- he just laughs his ass off ("Jesus, I hope I'm calling the right number!").  And then one of the best last lines to a romcom: "Get inside! you're rusting my guitar!"

[aradia22]

I miss you guys (even though I know I talk to a lot of you over on the theatre boards). I'm going to commit to watching a TCM movie as soon as I get the chance. I'm 10-20 minutes into The Pirate but I'm struggling with it. Why do I find Gene Kelly so unlikable in the majority of his movies? 

[Milburn Stone]

Why do I find Gene Kelly so unlikable in the majority of his movies? 

 

No idea.

[Athena]

Why do I find Gene Kelly so unlikable in the majority of his movies? 

 

I would like to know because why I don't always find him unlikable, I am often indifferent to him in movies. Yes, he is a great dancer and I do like "Singin' in the Rain," but I was bored out of my mind with An American In Paris and some of his other films. I just don't find him particularly charismatic when he acts. Not sure why. I'm a biased Astaire girl, but Kelly doesn't do it for me either.

[aradia22]

Singin' in the Rain, Brigadoon, An American in Paris, Cover Girl, Summer Stock, On the Town, Du Barry Was a Lady. It's not like I'm not giving him a fair shot. I think it's probably a combination of character and performance. He's given tough things to sell. For some reason a lot of these scripts start with him acting like a jerk as though that's supposed to endear you to him. Then when it comes time to sell the romance, more often than not, I don't believe that he's in love with most of his leading ladies. Though he does dance beautifully. For some reason he's better at being charming when he's dancing on his own. Except in those long ballet sequences that can be excruciating.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Kelly's great (though I'm an Astaire girl through and through), but I agree, he very often comes off as douche-y in his films, most notably in An American in Paris (dude, Lise told you to leave her alone, don't harass her at her job!) and For Me and My Gal (but he does learn his lesson at the end). He's at his most likable in Singin' in the Rain, and his tendency toward jerkiness is put to good use in Inherent the Wind.

[kassygreene]

Ah, Inherit the Wind.  That was a good movie, and he was so perfectly cast in it that I don't remember him as the actor, just the reporter.