TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[EtheltoTillie]

1 hour ago, Charlie Baker said:

I must say I was not as enthused as Eddie Muller over this week's Noir Alley Where Danger Lives.  But I am glad I saw it because it's a good example of what presences like Robert Mitchum and Claude Rains can bring to less than top-drawer material.

I saw it a while ago. It was not bad. 

[EtheltoTillie]

Oops wrong movie. I have to hunt down the one you saw. I didn’t realize they had a new noir this week. 

[Charlie Baker]

I caught Toys in the Attic before it vanished from Watch TCM, and I have to say I might like it a bit more than @EtheltoTillie and @Rinaldo. For sure it feels more like Inge than Hellman, and Wendy Hiller's performance was the strongest.  And it goes somewhere I wouldn't have expected in spelling out the subtext in the sibling relationships. Also lovely to see Gene Tierney.

This week prime time was taken up with Star of the Month Debbie Reynolds. They've taken this approach a few other times in recent years, of compacting the Star of the Month's movies into a few days. But I think I prefer the once a week tradition. This time it would seem to be due to the 31 Days of Oscar ending mid-month. 

[EtheltoTillie]

There were a few Debbie Reynolds clunkers, but I really like Hit the Deck.  Good singing and dancing. Kind of a sweet story. Tender Trap is really off. Frank is so mismatched with Debbie. You can really tell it’s a stage play. 

Edited March 30 by EtheltoTillie

[ratgirlagogo]

10 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

This week prime time was taken up with Star of the Month Debbie Reynolds. They've taken this approach a few other times in recent years, of compacting the Star of the Month's movies into a few days. But I think I prefer the once a week tradition. This time it would seem to be due to the 31 Days of Oscar ending mid-month.

I don't remember this all-week approach to the Star of the Month from before, but I guess that just means I don't remember.  I don't care for it personally.  In this case I  didn't watch much TCM this week because while I like Debbie Reynolds I dislike most of her films.  For people who DO like her films though, I'd imagine this would be maddening.  Too much not just to watch at once, but even to DVR at once.

[Rinaldo]

12 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Hit the Deck.  Good singing and dancing. Kind of a sweet story.

All these "servicemen on temporary shore leave" musicals interest me as to similarities and differences (cf. On the Town, Anchors Aweigh, Three Sailors and a Girl). TCM doesn't show Hit the Deck that often compared to other MGM titles of the era, and I'd always been curious about how it could lead up to that very unreal studio-set number danced to "Hallelujah." And the answer is... it doesn't! We just suddenly cut to the entire cast plunked down in MGM Limbo singing this song straight to camera, and then the movie's over. Great fun, actually.

12 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Tender Trap is really off. Frank is so mismatched with Debbie. You can really tell it’s a stage play. 

Wikipedia gives a surprisingly detailed account of the origins and tryouts of the source play, considering that it's an artifact of its period that has surely vanished onstage, even in community theater. Anyway, it seems that it was quite extensively revised for the screen, even if its stage bones persist in showing through. The Debbie Reynolds character was beefed up to provide a star role for her -- the star female role onstage (played there by the legendary Kim Stanley) was the character played onscreen by Celeste Holm. the friend from out of town was Robert Preston, and Charlie was Ronny Graham, reportedly cast precisely because he was a goofy non-dreamboat type which would make his womanizing behavior seem more palatable. 

The main things I like to recall about the movie are musical ones -- odd, as it's not a musical. The hangover sequence near the end is an amusing bit of "choreography" for the wide screen. And the title song is thoroughly featured. In addition to popping up as Debbie's rehearsal song halfway through the story, it gets a full rendition by Sinatra, awkwardly walking slowly toward the camera, before the opening credits even start. And then a reprise after the movie's over, shared out among the cast. That latter choice tickles me, because David Wayne and Celeste Holm were A-1 musical stars onstage (he in Finian's Rainbow, she in Oklahoma! and Bloomer Girl) who never got to sing in the movies, except this one time.

[EtheltoTillie]

Tender Trap:  I really did like the interaction between Celeste Holm and David Wayne at the end.

Now I have important questions for TCM fans:

 1)  How does a clunker like Mr. Imperium get made, and why would they ever give a Lana Turner movie a title like Mr. Imperium? Wouldn't the public think it's a sword and sandal epic or a science fiction movie about robots?  (I caught only the last few minutes of this one.)

2)  Has anyone ever seen Night Watch, with Liz Taylor and Laurence Harvey?  I have questions!  (Today is the last day on Watch TCM, FYI.)

This is based on a play by Lucille Fletcher, who also gave us Sorry, Wrong Number.  This one is another woman in jeopardy/gaslight situation.  I will put the question in spoiler tags, as it concerns the ending.

Spoiler

Are we really supposed to believe that Liz Taylor will get away with murder because her neighbor conspirator will cover up for her?  No one will notice the couple are missing?  And where is Liz going?  Brazil?  Bermuda?  I actually guessed that she was faking, but I wasn't sure she was going to stab everyone.  Or is it all in  her own mind? 

I really want to know!

Edited March 30 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

Hey, I just remembered, they had a nice interview with Billie Lourd (Debbie's granddaughter, Carrie Fisher's daughter) along with one of the Debbie movies, but I can't remember which.  I caught this some time a week or so ago.  I wish I could be more specific, but If you could catch it it's worth it.  Catching these extras is so random, even if you've planned ahead to watch one of the movies or recorded one.

[Milburn Stone]

25 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

In addition to popping up as Debbie's rehearsal song halfway through the story, it gets a full rendition by Sinatra, awkwardly walking slowly toward the camera, before the opening credits even start.

I love that Sinatra opening, with its wide wide lens putting him so far away at the start--don't think there's an analog for it anywhere else in filmdom. Had to be a Charles Walter inspiration.

(But maybe you have to be a Sinatraphile to love it as much as I do.)

Finally finished Forever Amber last night. I continued to find it fascinating, and I really can't separate my feeling from the David Raksin score. (I wish autocorrect would stop auto"correcting" the spelling of his name.) That is, if you took the score away and replaced it with some journeyman effort by someone, I might find the same movie ridiculous instead of liking it a lot. But all I can react to is the movie as produced, and with that score, it works for me.

The only thing that truly bothered me was the abruptness of the ending. I won't make this post longer by describing it, but it doesn't feel like an ending. It made me almost positive there must have been something that ended up on the cutting room floor, or got excised by the Production Code, or something.

[Charlie Baker]

To answer your question, @EtheltoTillie, I would say yes, that is what we are meant to think. Night Watch is the kind of thriller that won't take close scrutiny.

I've always found David Raksin's scores effective. (Laura!) I happened to notice that he scored, of all things, the Debbie Reynolds/Shelley Winters horror/suspense vehicle What's the Matter with Helen? when that turned up on the DR tribute.

[Rinaldo]

12 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

How does a clunker like Mr. Imperium get made, and why would they ever give a Lana Turner movie a title like Mr. Imperium? Wouldn't the public think it's a sword and sandal epic or a science fiction movie about robots?  (I caught only the last few minutes of this one.)

I myself didn't see it all either -- to my own chagrin, and by my own doing, because I'd been curious about that strange title for a long time, and yet I stopped partway through because it was just dead on the screen and I just couldn't make myself continue. I'd say this is one of those projects when nothing went right, starting with that title, which is the title of the source novel, which is (as they say) a reason but not an excuse. I would be interested to read the full history of how it got made sometime, if someone has researched it. But, knowing nothing of that, I would guess that they got the famously charismatic Ezio Pinza under contract for two movies, had to find a vehicle for him, decided that this book (by a Knopf) would serve, had Lana Turner under contract so in she went. And it just refused to work, starting with Mr. Pinza himself -- truly one of the great bass voices of the 20th century (a strong contender for #1, in fact), by unanimous report intensely stellar onstage in decades of opera and then through the run of South Pacific once the voice could no longer fill out operatic roles... and, it seems, unable to convey whatever version of "it" he had to a movie camera. He made his two movies (and a cameo in another), and that was it for him. Too bad.

12 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I love that Sinatra opening, with its wide wide lens putting him so far away at the start--don't think there's an analog for it anywhere else in filmdom.

You may be right about that. But there is an analog for the song's placement, as a separate event before the main credits start. That had also been done the year before, in Three Coins in the Fountain, in which we hear Sinatra (who doesn't actually appear in the film) sing the complete title song with nothing happening onscreen, and then the title and credits run. I guess that's indicative of his cultural weight in that period.

1 hour ago, Charlie Baker said:

I've always found David Raksin's scores effective. (Laura!) I happened to notice that he scored, of all things, the Debbie Reynolds/Shelley Winters horror/suspense vehicle What's the Matter with Helen? when that turned up on the DR tribute.

I noticed that when the movie first was released, and was surprised because in my mind he was indelibly associated with Laura and nothing else -- he was almost a legend from he past, and here he was in the present. That's when I did a bit of research and found that he'd been an active professional and had scored a lot of movies over the decades.

And then years after that, I saw him in person and even got to meet him, in the sense that I murmured something admiring and shook his hand. This was at a Saturday Gershwin symposium at the Library of Congress, for which he, as a longtime friend of Ira Gershwin, spoke on one of the panels. (Another person who participated in a similar way was Angie Dickinson, who'd been a neighbor of the Ira Gershwin's in her early Hollywood years. The big surprise there was that she's quite short!) His score for What's the Matter with Helen? is a good one, as is Forever Amber for sure. Of his many other fine scores, I might mention Force of Evil, which shows up on TCM occasionally. But Laura is surely his claim to immortality.

Edited March 31 by Rinaldo

[Charlie Baker]

A bit OT perhaps--Ezio Pinza got a sitcom called Bonino built around  him in the early 50s, in which he played a widowed opera singer raising his children. It only lasted a handful of episodes.  I thought I had read that somewhere a good while ago, and sure enough imdb bears it out.

[EtheltoTillie]

Golly, Debbie Reynolds sure ‘nuf made a bunch of spunky hillbilly pictures. Today I caught Tammy and the Bachelor for the first time. I really liked this a lot despite the now shocking references to Louise Beavers’s slave bandanna and the rebel ball and more. There’s interesting back story about how Leslie Nielsen was a method trained stiff.  He had not yet found his comic footing. 
 

Have not finished The Mating Game yet. There’s more interesting background I will post later. 

Edited April 1 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

There was also a funny anecdote about the Tammy theme song. Mankiewicz tells us that Eddie Fisher was really peeved about the song’s success.  

[bmoore4026]

Well, I just finished King of Kings.  Jeffrey Hunter is my favorite actor to play Jesus.  In fact, I think he was the best actor to play Jesus, no contest.

Mom wants to see The Greatest Story Ever Told, though, as that's her favorite.  It's almost four hours long, though, and will be on Spectrum's OnDemand service, and she'd like me to watch it with her.  I suppose I should.  I mean, I had her take me to see Avengers: Infinity War five times when I was in a serious bought of depression and that movie was the only thing cheering me up.  I owe her much for that.

[mariah23]

TCM Remembers Barbara Rush who passed away at age 97 yesterday.

[Rinaldo]

On 4/1/2024 at 1:04 AM, bmoore4026 said:

Well, I just finished King of Kings.  Jeffrey Hunter is my favorite actor to play Jesus.  In fact, I think he was the best actor to play Jesus, no contest.

I dunno, Max von Sydow isn't chopped liver. Also, to his great credit, he kept his dignity in a picture that hasn't (IMO) survived the years as well. By that I mean that while King of Kings for the most part cast good but lesser-known actors, The Greatest Story Ever Told  went all out for the star-cameo phenomenon -- in fact it probably remains the classic instance (short of jokey examples like Around the World in 80 Days).

I remember one witty, if irreverent, review remarking that if you're going to stuff your Bible movie with big stars in small parts, it's better to avoid names with lots of sibilants. Otherwise, the brief appearance of The Woman Healed will be followed by a theaterful of people hissing "Shelley Winters" to their friends.

I quite seriously wish that some of the other biblical movies (i.e., not Jesus, Samson, David, or Solomon) of the era would sometimes be shown by TCM. I remember The Story of Ruth being unusually good, but I was a kid in the back seat at the drive-in, and what did I know? I'd like to re-experience it as an adult.

Edited April 2 by Rinaldo

[Charlie Baker]

TCM's only direct competitor, other than streamers, is probably a channel/network just called Movies. It's a broadcast channel (gasp!) that some cable systems carry. There's some overlap in titles--they regularly devote whole evenings to noir--but there's more recent things, and more unearthing of made-for-TV projects.

All of which is lead up to my noticing they ran the Franco Zeffirelli Jesus of Nazareth on Easter night. I didn't watch--it ran in its entirety to the wee small hours, as Movies runs commercials.  (They also edit for content.)  I remember there was controversy about it being blasphemous before it ever aired.  But as I recall, once it was shown to be well-made and reverent, that died down.  The cast, like in Greatest Story Ever Told, is full of name performers in roles of varying size.  In the central role of Jesus was the lesser known British actor Robert Powell, who looks amazingly like the Jesus of paintings that  hung in  homes all over America, including those of both sets of my grandparents.  I remember him being quite good.

 

Edited April 2 by Charlie Baker

[HyeChaps]

Jesus of Nazareth is my favorite movie Jesus.

[SomeTameGazelle]

1 hour ago, HyeChaps said:

Jesus of Nazareth is my favorite movie Jesus.

Lothaire Bluteau (Jesus of Montreal) is mine.

[Charlie Baker]

Marlon Brando was born 100 years ago today. TCM has his movies all day.

[mariah23]

18 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

Marlon Brando was born 100 years ago today. TCM has his movies all day.

And on next Wednesday, The Godfather !

 

[Tom Holmberg]

18 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Lothaire Bluteau (Jesus of Montreal) is mine.

Nick Lowe, The Jesus of Cool is mine. Oh, wait, that's a record.

[Rinaldo]

On 4/2/2024 at 7:27 AM, Rinaldo said:

I remember The Story of Ruth being unusually good....

Having posted this, I then began to use my brain, reminding myself how much is available somewhere-or-other these days, and asked my Xfinity Search how to watch it. It turns out that a streaming channel FXM has it available, so I watched it last night.

As it's not from TCM (though who knows but what it might turn up someday -- it's in their database), I won't give it a full report. But it lived up to memory as a reasonably dignified un-campy telling of the story. It did elevate the Moabite Ruth to the position of temple priestess, so she got to be one of a lineup in studio-approved Naughty Lady costumes: shimmery strapless bias-cut gowns. After she marries a Judean and turns virtuous, she goes in for rough homespun clothes like everyone else. Our Ruth was Elana Eden, one of the wave of "charmingly accented" Middle Eastern ingenues imported by Hollywood in those years (see also Haya Harareet and Dahlia Lavi), and like some others had to change her surname to something sufficiently timeless and "exotic" (she started life as Elana Cooper). The latter part of the story also underwent some streamlining and Code-accommodation to get around that "uncover him while he sleeps and huddle at the foot of his bed, and he'll have to marry you" business that's so puzzling in Sunday School. And after Ms. Eden gave a graceful rendition of the famous "Where you go, I will go..." speech, Franz Waxman gave us a very pretty choral setting of it as background to Ruth & Naomi's travels across the desert, which then became the basis of the underscoring of the second half of the movie. And it acquired a bit of a civil-rights undertone (1960, after all), what with "don't stone or bully people who are different from you" being baked into the story.

[ProudMary]

30 Years of TCM. (Video Length: 12:35)

 

[BooksRule]

I watched 'The Broadway Melody' (1929) for the first time this past weekend. I can't say I liked it, but I'm glad I watched it (just for the 'historical' value). It was kind of sad that the two female leads were supposed to be this super-great sister act but their singing was...not good and their dancing was very rudimentary. It was kind of clunky and everyone was kind of awkward, but there were a few good moments. It's funny that various characters sang parts of 'Broadway Melody' several times during the movie, but the tune that has stuck in my head is the 'Wedding of the Painted Doll' number.  I can't get the dratted song to go away! 

[Charlie Baker]

So Brando is the Star of the Month. 

Tomorrow (4/5) is what I've christened TCM Mega-birthday day, and so we get Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, and Bette Davis movies during the day.  The other two notable gentlemen born on this day are not ignored: Walter Huston is great in the great Dodsworth showing at midnight to kick off 4/5. (And Mary Astor, who was not born on 4/5, is in Dodsworth, and then overnight, the documentary about her and two more of her movies are shown.) Melvyn Douglas (another 4/5er) is featured in the first Peck title of the day, The Great Sinner.

Then Friday evening is all Billy Wilder.

Such riches!

[mariah23]

30 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

So Brando is the Star of the Month. 

Tomorrow (4/5) is what I've christened TCM Mega-birthday day, and so we get Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, and Bette Davis movies during the day.  The other two notable gentlemen born on this day are not ignored: Walter Huston is great in the great Dodsworth showing at midnight to kick off 4/5. (And Mary Astor, who was not born on 4/5, is in Dodsworth, and then overnight, the documentary about her and two more of her movies are shown.) Melvyn Douglas (another 4/5er) is featured in the first Peck title of the day, The Great Sinner.

Then Friday evening is all Billy Wilder.

Such riches!

Another interesting bit of trivia: Tracy, Davis and Peck were born eight years apart (Tracy in 1900, Davis in 1908 and Peck in 1916)

[Rinaldo]

46 minutes ago, BooksRule said:

[The Broadway Melody] I can't say I liked it, but I'm glad I watched it (just for the 'historical' value). It was kind of sad that the two female leads were supposed to be this super-great sister act but their singing was...not good and their dancing was very rudimentary. It was kind of clunky

As someone who tries to find something to love in almost any musical, I must agree that The Broadway Melody mostly has historical value to offer now; the mere fact of seeing a show-biz story with songs and dances must have been overwhelming at the time; it's hard to explain a Best Picture award otherwise. And I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that show dancing tended toward the rudimentary and clunky at that time, at least within ensembles. No Balanchine had yet brought in balletic elements, never mind the individualistic handiwork of a De Mille or Robbins or Fosse. Of course there were brilliant soloists -- Jessie Matthews, the Astaires -- but I wonder what we'd think if we could be time-traveled to the premiere of a Gershwin or Kern show. 

I have to reinforce the praise for Dodsworth. To my shame, I never saw it (never having heard much about it) until maybe 5 years ago, at which point it became an all-time favorite. The production and the whole cast are excellent, but Walter Huston and Mary Astor are utterly outstanding. 

[voiceover]

On 3/30/2024 at 6:37 AM, EtheltoTillie said:

 

Hey, I just remembered, they had a nice interview with Billie Lourd (Debbie's granddaughter, Carrie Fisher's daughter)

 

In case anyone wants to catch it, check out the TCM channel on YT — a sweet few minutes with Dave Karger.

Hope everyone’s marked their calendars for the day of Robert Osborne intros (April 14).  I believe I actually…yelped…when I read the news release.   Pinged me back to the first night of his return after that looooong absence.

He is always missed here.

[EtheltoTillie]

@Rinaldo I did not intend to stay up and rewatch Dodsworth last night but I could not turn it off. Stayed up much too late. After watching the last half of Diner. I love seeing Walter Huston loosen up at the end in his shirtsleeves. Ruth Chatterton was also excellent. 

Edited April 5 by EtheltoTillie

[EtheltoTillie]

Billy Wilder night:  Double Indemnity and The Major and the Minor!  

[EtheltoTillie]

Oh there’s more!  Five Graves to Cairo and a really old one, a TCM premiere, Mauvaise Graine. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I have watched The Major and the Minor so many times I can recite it by heart. 

[Charlie Baker]

I don't think we've talked about a new TCM series. Tonight is the launch of Two for One, which is sort of a long-delayed follow-up to The Essentials.  For some time a short had been running with Martin Scorsese and Stephen Spielberg on growing up with the double feature at a movie theater, and this new series follows up with a filmmaker programming two films and discussing them with Ben.  Both Scorsese (first up) and Spielberg are participating, and the others and the films they have chosen look interesting. 

Two for One Schedule 

[EtheltoTillie]

Oh that double feature thing should be fun. I saw that interview. I also grew up with the mismatched double features. I like looking at ads in old NYT pages now and seeing what was playing. 

Edited April 6 by EtheltoTillie

[Mindthinkr]

https://www.tcm.com/articles/Programming Article/021890/two-for-one?icid=homepage-carousel1-two-for-one--martin-scorsese
 

Thank you for posting the schedule. 

[Mindthinkr]

I’m enjoying the morning watching Susan Slade. I recall seeing it long ago, but forgot so many of the details. 
There’s been so many good movies on TCM lately. 

[Rinaldo]

It was a kick to see One Touch of Venus as part of the Scorsese double bill. If it's ever appeared on TCM before, I can't recall it, and it has its oddball charm. Partly, I suppose, because of my long-term involvement with the stage musical that is its source, preparing a restored and corrected edition. As was customary with all film musicals and operettas in that period, a bare minimum (or less) of the stage score  was retained -- one song intact, another with some lyrics altered to turn it from a solo to a trio, a third with all lyrics (including title) replaced, plus a smattering of the omitted songs included in the main-titles overture. Most characters changed or omitted as well, and the milieu changed to a department store. At least they cast the optimum choice at that date to embody a goddess of love, Ava Gardner (her singing, as always, dubbed).

Robert Walker had charm in his lightweight way, but the mystery remains how Hitchcock could see in this everyman juvenile the person to embody the soulless creep Bruno in Strangers on a Train.  However he came up with the idea, he was right.

[bmoore4026]

Well, I saw Grey Gardens for the second time tonight.  I can sympathize with being a shut-in who lives with a cantankerous old mother that you often have nasty fights with.

I need to know though is did Jackie Kennedy ever find out what was happening with her aunt and cousin?  If so, did she do anything about it?

[Rinaldo]

When I saw the lineup for Tuesday April 16, I had a hunch that a birthday might be being celebrated... and I was right! That date would have been Henry Mancini's 100th birthday, so we get 24 hours of movies that include his soundtracks:

A Carol for Another Christmas, Soldier in the Rain, Touch of Evil, The Great Race, Bachelor in Paradise, TCM's umpteenth airing of Dear Heart, Days of Wine and Roses, The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and on after midnight with my beloved Two for the Road, then Charade and Wait Until Dark. 

I know most of those well, except the first on the list, but I'll probably watch most of them again anyway. Most are worth a look on their nonmusical merits, and in several cases the Mancini touch elevated the movie to classic status.

Speaking of music, on April 20 Dave Karger's Musical Matinee (where we usually expect the likes of Singin' in the Rain) will apparently be Ingmar Bergman's film of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute (in Swedish). If it's at his urging, all the more credit to Dave -- it's a marvelous movie experience.

[chessiegal]

9 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

I need to know though is did Jackie Kennedy ever find out what was happening with her aunt and cousin?  If so, did she do anything about it?

From what I've read Jackie didn't know until she saw the film. She was horrified and provided funds.

[mariah23]

Happy Anniversary TCM!!

[EtheltoTillie]

Indiscreet was kind of dull. The best part was Ingrid’s wardrobe. Those were some fabulous gowns. Related news:  next week I will be attending an event at the Scandinavian Institute here in NYC about knitting. Isabella Rossellini will be a panelist. Going with my weekly knitting group friends. We’re all excited. 

Edited April 14 by EtheltoTillie

[Charlie Baker]

Indiscreet is nothing earthshaking, but I enjoyed it for seeing two mature stars in a romance looking great and working off each other beautifully. 

Edited April 14 by Charlie Baker

[EtheltoTillie]

3 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

Indiscreet is nothing earthshaking, but I enjoyed it for seeing two mature stars in a romance looking great and working off each other beautifully. 

Yes, they did look good together.  Frankly, Ingrid was looking at Cary as if he was good enough to eat.  But the script was kind of dull.

[EtheltoTillie]

I caught the clip of Robert Osborne on the Beverly Hillbillies. Ha!  This was part of an old interview with RO and Alec Baldwin. 

Edited April 15 by EtheltoTillie

[bmoore4026]

15 hours ago, chessiegal said:

From what I've read Jackie didn't know until she saw the film. She was horrified and provided funds.

Good for her.  It was nice that she stepped up when no else would.

[chessiegal]

I first learned of Grey Gardens while watching the TV show Gilmore Girls. Lorelai and Rory often watched movies together. In one episode they are watching Grey Gardens. I figured if show creators Amy Sheridan and Dan Palladino thought it was important enough to include a mention, I'd watch it. Next time I saw it was on, I started to watch but didn't make it through very far. 😄

[Charlie Baker]

It was interesting to hear Olivia Wilde talk about her double feature choices, how Auntie Mame represented a fantasy about a strong, flamboyant woman making her way in an age where such behaviors from a woman were outside the social norm.  And Grey Gardens represented an all-too-real look about two such women (who had other problems, to be sure) doing what they could with what they had.   Olivia Wilde also said she felt the dramatized versions of the story didn't do them justice.

I didn't see the HBO film with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, but for me,  the stage musical humanized the Beale ladies in a way the documentary doesn't.  I'm glad Ben mentioned that some found the doc exploitative, because I did, as well as  creepy, sideshow-ish.  But the musical, with a first act that presents a version of the women's glory days, the second based heavily on the doc, the nice score, and the performances of Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, presented them sympathetically.

To go a bit deeper and maybe more OT, the new CBS series Elsbeth is kind of fun. The last episode found the quirky character solving a murder in the Hamptons in the winter, and the soundtrack at one point played a snippet of the sad and lovely "Another Winter in a Summer Town" from the GG musical.

On to something else--say what one will about Alec Baldwin, his tribute to Mr. Osborne at the end of that Private Screenings interview seemed heartfelt. And I couldn't help but be touched by the messages to him from his Hollywood friends during the end credits, especially since a number of them have fairly recently passed themselves.

OK, I'll stop now.