TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

Maybe all our knowledgeable readers know this already, but Down to Earth is a strange semi-sequel to Here Comes Mr. Jordan. James Gleason and Edward Everett Horton repeat their roles as Max Corkle and Messenger 7013, and Roland Culver replaces Claude Rains as Mr. Jordan. How the Greek muses (Hayworth is Terpsichore) fit into a more or less Christian afterlife... your guess is as good as mine. Of course, Here Comes Mr. Jordan was remade as Heaven Can Wait, while Down to Earth was loosely remade as Xanadu.

[ruby24]

I always found there to be a weird plot point in You Were Never Lovelier, where the major ruse being pulled on Rita Hayworth is the fact that her dad is the one writing her the love letters and not the guy she's into. I know he was doing it so that her feelings aren't hurt, but the fact that he keeps this up for a very long time and the letters are so long and detailed is a bit strange, no? I feel like they should have had him hire someone else to do it or something, to get rid of that awkward premise.

[aradia22]

 

aradia, I wonder if you're a person who just doesn't like musicals. It's OK! Not everyone has to like musicals. The reason I wonder this about you is that you often object to the very same fantastical qualities that people who do like musicals treasure them for.

Oh, no. That's really not the problem. I love musicals and movie musicals. I actually suspected I wouldn't love this one so much going into it. I didn't think I'd have time to get through the whole movie which was why I put it on. I don't think any of my objections had to do with musicals. To phrase it a bit more explicitly, I thought Rita Hayworth was forced to act too prim and affected and yes, like a stereotypically "white" actress which was why I found Terpsichore so odd at first. The gender stuff wasn't grating but I don't think Danny or Kitty/Terpsichore were written especially well. More than being regressive they were just poorly developed. She was shrewish and then manipulative and then submissive, sure, but it was more that she was extremely changeable as though there was no character and just what the script demanded. I don't think bad dubbing is really a quality of movie musicals. Neither is Danny being a schmuck who has no idea how to create an entertaining musical. Robert Osborne explained about the semi-sequel status before the movie, Rinaldo, and said a bit more about Larry Park's career afterwards but honestly, he's just low on my list of leading men. He's somewhere above John Hodiak in the Harvey Girls and below Gene Kelly in The Pirate.

[Julia]

I think the HUAC blacklist cut Larry Parks.down before he really found his feet, poor thing. I would have liked to have seen more of Betty Garrett (Mrs Parks) too, but they took her down at the same time.

Edited February 18, 2015 by Julia

[Milburn Stone]

I think the HUAC blacklist cut Larry Parks down before he really found his feet, poor thing.

 

He's an interesting case, just viewing him as an audience member looking at an actor. There's something not quite right about him in his performances. He's going through the motions of being a leading man, but somehow not convincingly projecting the confidence that a leading man needs. It's as if he knows he's a fraud, and can't quite conceal it. Or has a secret that he knows will destroy him. 

[Julia]

He's an interesting case, just viewing him as an audience member looking at an actor. There's something not quite right about him in his performances. He's going through the motions of being a leading man, but somehow not convincingly projecting the confidence that a leading man needs. It's as if he knows he's a fraud, and can't quite conceal it. Or has a secret that he knows will destroy him. 

 

I feel that way about Robert Alda, although I know people who saw him in Guys and Dolls and said he was amazing. Maybe film just wasn't their medium. 

Edited February 18, 2015 by Julia

[voiceover]

Let me now praise To Kill a Mockingbird,  one of the count-on-one-hand films I love as much as I love the book.

 

When Gregory Peck bursts through the door, voice choked with emotion, yelling, "Scout! SCOUT!!!" there at the climax, and he grabs his daughter tightly after she leaps into his arms, why...I burst into tears, every time.

[Crs97]

"I was to think of these days many times. Of Jem, and Dill, and Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson, and Atticus. He would be in Jem's room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning."

[Charlie Baker]

Geez, Crs97, I can get teary just reading that. :-)

[Crs97]

The perfect end to a perfect movie

Edited February 21, 2015 by Crs97

[prican58]

Mockingbird is a perfect example of a perfect movie made from a perfect book. I read the book in high school in English class and loved it Every person in this country should read it. 

 

Atticus being portrayed by Peck is probably one of the most perfect casting choices. Did Harper Lee right it with him in mind? My mom loves Gregory Peck and even more so because Atticus was a guy very much like her father growing up in Puerto Rico during the depresion. Right down to the suit.

 

I never did see the appeal of Hayworth. Yes, the obvious appeal but not in the acting. Even in Gilda I was not that impressed. I feel the same about Ava Gardner. Sexy as all get out but I could never really feel impressed. Both actresses' lives were much more interesting than their film roles. But I did kind of like Rita in Pal Joey.She was already older.

I remember when there were reports years later that she was seen drunk and disoriented on a flight and a few years later we learned she had developed Alzheimer's. I'm sure she had been feeling early affects. So sad. That disease is brutal and needs to be vanquished.  

[opus]

Out of mild curiosity, why isn't this thread in the NETWORK TALK section?

Edited February 22, 2015 by GaryE

[Bastet]

It was started prior to the creation of the Network Talk sub-forum, and just never got moved once that was created for whatever reason.  You can always use the report function to bring it to the moderation team's attention as a possibility for the next round of site housekeeping.

Edited February 22, 2015 by Bastet

[voiceover]

In a post that will surprise no one here:

TCM Remembers once again kicked Oscar's In Memoriam's ass.

Edited February 23, 2015 by voiceover

[Julia]

That was weird. They were showing those - what were they, pastel sketches? - and I was thinking if only these people had worked in motion pictures, so we could have seen some snippet of why we're remembering them.

[voiceover]

Here was my biggest gripe:

All of those songs (ugh) and NPH time-wasting routines, when they could have had Maureen O'Hara there -- at least, waved to her seat in the balcony and run a montage of her films.

Every time something idiotic happened on the show last night, I yelled: "MAUREEN O'HARA!!!" at the tv.

[monakane]

It's been a good while since I saw Funny Girl -- maybe not since its first release (which kept it in theaters sporadically for years, as happened in those pre-VCR times). I should check it out again; I was quite devoted at the time.

 

An American in Paris is another story for me, though I do enjoy the "I Got Rhythm" number. But I'm pretty sure I've mouthed off about it here not too long ago, no point boring everyone with a rehash. I love Gershwin too! -- I wrote my PhD dissertation about him. But I'd rather get the music from somewhere else.

 

I'm not a fan of American in Paris.  It has everything that I normally love in a movie (Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, beautiful costumes and dancing) yet it leaves me cold.  I can't explain it, but I find it boring.  It doesn't make sense to me either.  

[elle]

This may be old news to everyone but me, but I've just discovered there are quite a lot of classic film bloopers floating around on YouTube.  I know the copyright logistics would take some work, but I'd love to see TCM compile and air little 15-minute segments as interstitials.  Something like this:

Fun!  My favorite is the bit with Eve Arden, at least I think it is Eve Arden, who else would have the snappy comeback to someone else's flub about "New York Women are ****"  Eve: Oh , I don't think so.

Edited February 24, 2015 by elle

[prican58]

Did Shirley Temple make the Oscar reel last year? She died 1-2 weeks before  the Awards so I am guessing that is why she was not seen in this years reel. Still, she should have been shown again because she did die in 2014, the year being honored last night.

 

Seriously, she was arguably, THE most famous movies star ever and she was nowhere to be found last night.

 

voiceover, you are so right. 

[mariah23]

Temple died in early February, the Oscars were held I believe March 2, due to the Winter Olympics.

Wait, I just read your post. SHE WASN'T ON THE MEMORIAM?!!!!

[Wiendish Fitch]

Temple died in early February, the Oscars were held I believe March 2, due to the Winter Olympics.

Wait, I just read your post. SHE WASN'T ON THE MEMORIAM?!!!!

 

I second that exclamatory question! Look, I know Shirley Temple was hardly everyone's favorite (even I grew disenchanted with her as I grew older), but surely her achievements, such as being the youngest Oscar winner ever, becoming an ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Guam, speaking publicly about breast cancer in a time when you couldn't even say "breast" on TV, and NOT becoming a pathetic casualty like other child stars, merits something?! It's bad enough fucking Joan Rivers got not one, but two People magazine covers, and all Temple got was a crappy little paragraph buried in a random issue (that's right, her death didn't even warrant a cover story).

[Julia]

I second that exclamatory question! Look, I know Shirley Temple was hardly everyone's favorite (even I grew disenchanted with her as I grew older), but surely her achievements, such as being the youngest Oscar winner ever, becoming an ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Guam, speaking publicly about breast cancer in a time when you couldn't even say "breast" on TV, and NOT becoming a pathetic casualty like other child stars, merits something?! It's bad enough fucking Joan Rivers got not one, but two People magazine covers, and all Temple got was a crappy little paragraph buried in a random issue (that's right, her death didn't even warrant a cover story).

 

What's even creepier is that I haven't seen any other mention of the omission online, but there has been a little burst of articles about Joan Rivers being omitted, since she was involved in three or four movies and she worked the red carpet. 

[Aethera]

I just found last year's on YouTube - and Shirley Temple Black was in it.  So there was no reason for her to be in this year's.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I just found last year's on YouTube - and Shirley Temple Black was in it.  So there was no reason for her to be in this year's.

 

Oh, that's good. Never mind, then (though that still doesn't excuse People magazine's omission).

[Bastet]

Wasn't Temple included in the previous year's In Memoriam segment (because, even though she died in '14, she died before the Oscars so they included her)?

 

Sorry, too slow.

Edited February 24, 2015 by Bastet

[voiceover]

I was watching the back-to-back of two of my favorite romantic comedies (Annie Hall & Goodbye Girl = ahhh, rapture!) and they showed the Chuck Workman "100 Years at the Movies" vid between them.  God, I loveloveLOVE that montage!  This time I actually wept while watching.

[Crisopera]

I really love "100 Years at the Movies"!  I always tear up.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I really love "100 Years at the Movies"!  I always tear up.

I can watch it over and over, it always warms the cockles of my cold, cold heart. Not to mention it indulges my more smugly-inclined geeky side, because I love being able to name the movies they show in the montage (hey, I'm a woman of limited talents, what else can I do?).

[elle]

I can watch it over and over, it always warms the cockles of my cold, cold heart. Not to mention it indulges my more smugly-inclined geeky side, because I love being able to name the movies they show in the montage (hey, I'm a woman of limited talents, what else can I do?).

I can relate!  When I started to recognize the music that goes along with it, I was geeking at a new level.  :0)

 

(The obvious one is "Goldfinger", and I love how they pair with Audrey Hepburn's cheeky smile, a lot of it comes from "Citizen Kane")

[Pickles Aplenty]

Well, I haven't seen a lot of old movies, but I made plans to remedy that this year.  I've been scouring Netflix for any good finds, and I watched The Apartment for the first time today.  I really enjoyed it, but I'm surprised it was advertised as a comedy.  There were definitely funny bits in it, but the whole story seemed so sad to me I had trouble seeing it that way.  I thought Jack Lemmon and Shirley McLaine churned out some amazing performances and that McLaine in particular was perfectly cast; I really felt for her and her expressions killed me in a lot of scenes, especially her eyes.  Jack Lemmon was cute in that doofy sort of way.  Overall, I was happy I watched it and I thought it was a good movie to "cut my teeth on", so to speak.

[Rinaldo]

Yes, The Apartment is an odd duck that way -- similar to some later Billy Wilder "comedies" that really don't make me laugh much at all. It is indeed quite sad at its center: sleazy office affairs, loneliness at Christmastime, self-loathing and attempted suicide... It still surprises me that it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. But maybe it was taken differently when it was new? (I was around, but too young to see it or understand it.) Adultery at the office seems to have been taken as an uncomplicated good time back then, sometimes. 

[ratgirlagogo]

I've come to feel that The Apartment is a post-Nazi, post-Holocaust   (and maybe a post-McCarthyite)  comedy and must have been felt that way by  people at the time.  The two "little" people come to regret and ultimately reject their attempts to be "realistic" and fit in with the morally repellent status quo.  

Edited February 26, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[prican58]

I haven't seen The Apartment in quite a while, but I'm usually all in when it comes to Fred McM. I do prefer him in his prime , however. As he got past middle age he seemed quite the doddering type. 

 

Jack Lemmon is one of those actors that isn't fawned over by the masses but the guy was so versatile. I suspect that once TCM starts really rolling with the 1970's/80's and his best 1950/1960's stuff, he will rise up to where he should be. Days of Wine and Roses, It Should Happen to You, Mr Roberts are real good examples of his versatility. Check them out, Billina.  

[Pickles Aplenty]

I will.  The only Jack Lemmon movies I'd seen prior to The Apartment was Some Like It Hot and Grumpy Old Men.

 

Speaking of Some Like It Hot, I think that's one of the funniest films ever made.  I know Marilyn was difficult to work with, but she really sparkles in that movie.  And Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are hilarious.

[Julia]

Jack Lemmon was just such an amazing character actor that I don't think we appreciate him enough for his sheer chops. For the same person to have made Mr. Roberts / Some Like It Hot and The Days of Wine and Roses is the kind of thing that would make an actor a minor demigod these days. The only actor I can think of who comes close is Tom Hanks, and while I love him Tom Hanks is no Jack Lemmon (and I don't think he thinks he is).

Edited February 26, 2015 by Julia

[voiceover]

Fame!  What Glee could only ever aspire to...

 

I'd forgotten that Leslie Gore co-wrote some of that music.  IMO, one of the best original soundtracks ever.

[Milburn Stone]

I've come to feel that The Apartment is a post-Nazi, post-Holocaust   (and maybe a post-McCarthyite)  comedy and must have been felt that way by  people at the time.  The two "little" people come to regret and ultimately reject their attempts to be "realistic" and fit in with the morally repellent status quo.  

 

I love this insight. Never thought of it this way. You could also think of it as looking forward (rather than reacting to the past). It anticipates the mid-sixties' "don't conform" message of such films as A Thousand Clowns and King of Hearts. (Not to mention stage musicals like Anyone Can Whistle.)

Edited February 27, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[Charlie Baker]

Jack Lemmon deserves to be considered one of the all time greats, IMO.  A while back during the Neil Simon Friday Night Spotlight, I mentioned how good he is in The Prisoner of Second Avenue and tomorrow night our favorite network is showing The China Syndrome which is Lemmon at his latter day best.  The details and trappings of the film might date, but Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas are also excellent and the storytelling/filmmaking is strong.

 

And yes, Mister Roberts, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, etc., etc.,etc.

[Sharpie66]

I think that Mister Roberts is one of the best movies ever made. It is just hilarious, and all of the actors are terrific--Lemmon, Fonda, Powell, Cagney, and every one of the rest of the guys on The Bucket.

[Bastet]

It took me a while to get around to watching Mister Roberts - with so many films out there, the androcentric ones fall down my list - but with that cast I knew I had to see it.  I tended to distract myself, wondering "Is this one of the things Fonda battled with Ford over?" and "I wonder which director shot this part," so I kind of wish I didn't know any of the behind-the-scenes drama before seeing it.  But Bill Powell is the highlight for me; Doc was a great role for him to go out on.

[ratgirlagogo]

Just wanted to recommend a great noir tomorrow (Sat. the 28th) at 12:45 pm for those of you who haven't seen it  - The Narrow Margin,  with AMAZING performances by the beautiful and underrated Marie Windsor and the equally terrific and underrated Charles McGraw.  There are a couple of surprising plot twists that I really think you will not see coming.  A classic, classic noir.

[prican58]

I really do love all the classics from the 30's through the 40's, but I really do love the films from the 50/60's that were based in NYC. Gritty dramas like Naked City, Anatomy  of a Murder, Hatfull of Rain that really do feel like Manhattan on a dreary rainy day. I love seeing folks like Lee Remick, Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Ben Gazzarra and Tony Franciosa.

 

Maybe because these folks were East coasters (Remick was from MA but studied at The Actors Studio in NY, the others from NYC) they somehow innately were able to just own their roles. The late 50's was a pretty interesting decade in film, with that touch of reality without any glitz and glamour. It wasn't really film noir because there was no real mystery or intrigue,  Just real people in the real world..

 

I also love the British films of the same era and into the early 60's. If it starred Alan Bates, Richard Harris, Tom Courtenay, Dirk Bogarde or  Albert Finney it was always interesting. From time to time TCM has aired these Brit films but not often enough for my tastes. I guess it has something to do with the rights of the films. That era gives way to the swingin' 60's/Mod English movies like Georgy Girl, Petulia. Julie Christie would be the icon of that etra. 

 

Lots of great stuff to be found after the Studio system started waning.

[Julia]

Anatomy of a Murder was based in Michigan, I think. I know what you mean, though. There was a sort of urban noir feel to it.

[Milburn Stone]

It took me a while to get around to watching Mister Roberts...I tended to distract myself, wondering "Is this one of the things Fonda battled with Ford over?" and "I wonder which director shot this part," so I kind of wish I didn't know any of the behind-the-scenes drama before seeing it.  But Bill Powell is the highlight for me; Doc was a great role for him to go out on.

 

Bastet, I'm unfamiliar with the Fonda-Ford battles on Mister Roberts. Also didn't know portions were directed by others. If you can fill us in on all of that, I'll appreciate it. (Still haven't gotten over the performance Ford got out of Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln, which I saw for the first time over Christmas. I almost think I need to see Mr. Roberts again now that I've seen YML. Almost as if the only way to understand the later movie is to know the earlier one.)                                                                                                                                     

Edited February 28, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[3pwood]

Anatomy of a Murder was based in Michigan, I think. 

 

It was set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula & based on a novel about a real trial in which the author served as defense attorney (he went on to become a Justice of the state Supreme Court).

[prican58]

You are right,  Julia. 

[Charlie Baker]

A somewhat heady New York Times piece on the therapeutic value of TCM:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-turner-classic-movies.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=nytimesarts

 

I thnk we can all somewhat relate. :-)

[Julia]

I don't generally expect to relate to Leon Wieseltier, but that was really nice.

 

Boy, though, mileage clearly varies on Eve Arden...

[Milburn Stone]

I don't generally expect to relate to Leon Wieseltier, but that was really nice.

 

Boy, though, mileage clearly varies on Eve Arden...

 

Yes. I am tempted to say, "Never trust someone who doesn't like Eve Arden."

[Julia]

Yes. I am tempted to say, "Never trust someone who doesn't like Eve Arden."

 

Yeah, well, it's Leon Wieseltier. We're probably not intellectually equipped to grasp the inherent unacceptable risk posed to the zeitgeist by Eve Arden.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Julia