TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[ratgirlagogo]

Another Late Show fan here.  Art Carney was always so good, but in relatively few movies that really allowed him to show what he could do - this and I guess Harry and Tonto being the best ones.  When I read Inherent Vice (haven't seen the film yet) I thought that The Late Show and The Long Goodbye must be favorites of Thomas Pynchon.

[Milburn Stone]

ratgirlagogo, I totally thought of The Long Goodbye the whole time I was watching Inherent Vice. I felt like it should be called Inherently Long Goodbye.

[prican58]

Watching  "A Man Betrayed" with John Wayne, Frances Dee. It's 1941 and he plays a a small town lawyer who gets involved with Dee who is the daughter of a corrupt politician. It's a pretty good B movie and Wayne is as charming as ever. What is it about this guy that just always charms me? I love how handsome he is and that soothing mid west drawl. I like seeing him in contemporary garb even though his westerns are very comforting.  

 

Sorry to gush but I just love the guy. 

 

Also, Ward Bond in a strange role as a simpleton.   

Edited May 25, 2015 by prican58

[Rinaldo]

Coming up at 10 (ET) tonight: The Crimson Pirate! Such fun!

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Watching  "A Man Betrayed" with John Wayne, Frances Dee

Huh,  somehow I've never seen this one. Next time, then.   Not just for Wayne, but Frances Dee was so incredibly hot.  Figures the bitch was married to equally hot Joel McCrea for fifty-plus years :)

[prican58]

Huh,  somehow I've never seen this one. Next time, then.   Not just for Wayne, but Frances Dee was so incredibly hot.  Figures the bitch was married to equally hot Joel McCrea for fifty-plus years :)

 Yes, ratgirl, I stumbled upon the Wayne flick on the Movies channel where it was a Duke day for Memorial Day. I didn't know about the marathon until this one came on. I'd never seen or heard of it as most probably because it was one of those B Republic productions. But it was well made. 

 

Yeah, Frances Dee. I have never gotten a good read on her as the only film of hers I am familiar with is Little Women. I could never spot her in a crowd although she has a bit of Paulette Goddard only not as sexy IMO. She outlived Joel but the fact it lasted till death do us part is such a grand thing. H'Wood has such a reputation for divorce but folks like them and Richard Widmark and Charles Boyer stayed married till the end. I'm sure there were others.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Yeah, Frances Dee. I have never gotten a good read on her as the only film of hers I am familiar with is Little Women

Yeah, and Meg's not the showiest of parts.  I don't know what her "big" film would be, but my own favorite is I Walked With a Zombie, my favorite adaptation of Jane Eyre.

[mariah23]

Watch 1933's Blood Money, where Dee plays a kleptomaniac, a nymphomaniac, and so on.

[ratgirlagogo]

Thanks.  Is this something they show on TCM?

[mariah23]

I don't think it has ever been on TCM, I found the movie on You Tube a few years ago.

[applecrisp]

Did anyone see The Stranger with Orson Wells and Edward G. Robinson?   It was filmed just after WWII and the studio had Wells stay on budget and he was monitored.  

 

Though I like Wells I did not like this movie.  It was so melodramatic-the shooting angles and music were bad.  The characters were not fleshed out and some useless really.  It was about a nazi settled in a small town, married to a judges daughter(Loretta Young) and stalked by an FBI agent.  The first movie to show the nazis were living here.  I wanted to like it but I just couldn't.

[Charlie Baker]

As part of the wrap up of Sterling Hayden as Star of the Month, TCM showed another 70s obscurity (I'm feeling I could get obsessed with these), Loving. (In the middle of the night, with a TV MA rating.) Hayden's role was small.  George Segal played a freelance commercial artist.  The movie threatened to have an indulgent, arty dwelling-on-an-affluent-white-man's-early-midlife-angst but I stayed with it.  Looking at some of the reviews from the time, I guess it was considered something of a comedy of manners, or satire, but it didn't feel all that humorous to me.  Segal was juggling a mistress, a wife (nicely played by Eva Marie Saint) and family, and a precarious career.  Then it blows up in his face.  In small roles were Roy Scheider and future studio boss Sherry Lansing.

 

Another item--and I flirt with going off-topic here:  Grace of Monaco had its US premiere on Lifetime, I believe.  And I confess I watched it.  This is a movie that had a troubled production, and was poorly received in Cannes, then didn't get distributed by the Weinstein Company once it acquired it.  Nicole Kidman played Grace Kelly  I think they were going for a glossy Hitchcockian look to the film, and Kidman is pretty good, actually.  I didn't find her face in this immobilized as some might have claimed. But it's not a great script.  It focuses on the turmoil around Grace Kelly possibly returning to acting after some years as princess of Monaco to play the title role in Marnie.  (OK--maybe now I'm a little more on topic?)  I don't know the history but I don't suspect this had the social and political impact for Monaco that the movie would have us think.  Overall it's at the level of your average TV movie biopic of a celebrity or historical figure, done more elaborately.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Charlie Baker

[ratgirlagogo]

 

As part of the wrap up of Sterling Hayden as Star of the Month, TCM showed another 70s obscurity (I'm feeling I could get obsessed with these), Loving.

Ooh, I remember liking this one a lot when I saw it in the theater (back in the days when movies like Loving would pop up again and again for years as the bottom half of the double feature in the second and third run houses - BTW I think I must have seen The Twelve Chairs at least forty times as the bottom half of a double bill, most oddly and yet appropriately with Cries and Whispers).  I wish I'd noticed it was on, I'd like to see it again. George Segal is an actor I didn't care for that much at the time, but in retrospect he was in a bunch of awfully good movies - this one,  A Touch of Class, The Hot Rock, California Split.    I need to watch some of them again,  see how I feel about the guy now.

Edited May 29, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[Rinaldo]

As part of the wrap up of Sterling Hayden as Star of the Month, TCM showed another 70s obscurity (I'm feeling I could get obsessed with these), Loving. (In the middle of the night, with a TV MA rating.) Hayden's role was small.  George Segal played a freelance commercial artist.  The movie threatened to have an indulgent, arty dwelling-on-an-affluent-white-man's-early-midlife-angst but I stayed with it.  Looking at some of the reviews from the time, I guess it was considered something of a comedy of manners, or satire, but it didn't feel all that humorous to me.  Segal was juggling a mistress, a wife (nicely played by Eva Marie Saint) and family, and a precarious career.  Then it blows up in his face.  In small roles were Roy Scheider and future studio boss Sherry Lansing.

Like ratgirlagogo, I remember this being one of those movies that hung on for years to fill out double bills in the neighborhood houses, but it didn't attract any great public when it was first released. It got some appreciative reviews, from the likes of Pauline Kael, for being a kind of American version of a European film with more character and mood than story, and captured an atmosphere that hadn't quite been achieved onscreen before, and gave George Segal more room to show his quality than he'd had before. Irvin Kershner, at this period, was a critics'-fave director, devoted to little offbeat flicks like this (that he was later given The Empire Strikes Back was seen as him finally getting a nice paycheck -- and bringing it some good qualities too -- after all that work on the outskirts.) But it is an odd little movie, not really satisfying in the end for all its appeal en route; I remember in particular that it had no real ending, it just stopped.

 

Another fine actor I remember having a bit in it -- in fact I find it was his first movie -- is Sab Shimono, as the girl's clarinet-playing roommate. Unlike, alas, most of his many later roles, he got to play just a regular NYC guy, rather than someone who has to be Asian for plot reasons.

[magicdog]

It focuses on the turmoil around Grace Kelly possibly returning to acting after some years as princess of Monaco to play the title role in Marnie. 

I don't know the history but I don't suspect this had the social and political impact for Monaco that the movie would have us think.

 

 

I never heard this but I can see why at the time it could have been a bit scandalous if Kelly had returned to acting if only for one film.  She was after all the Princess of Monaco by then and it would have been somewhat insulting and demeaning for her to return to Hollywood.  Today, it probably wouldn't matter quite as much but I'm thinking it would be issues of dignity and royal protocol.

 

I

I think the [The Best Years of Our Lives] is just amazing in how well it represents PTSD, before anyone really knew what it was.

 

 

I agree, except that I think people did know what it was - they just gave it different names.

 

 

True on both counts.  It was called "shell shock" following WW1.  By the 50s and 60s it was referred to as "battle fatigue".  Then "PTSD" was coined in the 80s I think (that's when I remember seeing the term used at least).  I remember there was a joke by a comedian in which he said with every war trauma, the diagnosis received more syllables!

 

One of the best things about "The Best Years..." is that PTSD is only part of the issue returning GIs had to deal with.  My niece became a fan of the film when her HS history class required her to see the film and write an essay about it.  It was great to see how she noticed little things like how each of the former soldiers came from different socio economic backgrounds. Al was upper middle class and more or less slipped back into his prewar life.   Fred was from the wrong side of the tracks with no useable skills for civilian life. Homer appeared to be lower middle class - someone who didn't want to be a burden to fiancee Wilma, and was giving her every opportunity for her to get out of his life.  I loved how Wilma could have turned tail and abandoned Homer but she was still willing to marry him and share his burdens, not hide from them.

 

I also wasn't happy about Peggy's announcement to break up Fred and Marie's marriage.  The good part was she was talked out of it when her mother lovingly explained how couples do go through periods where they do dislike one another for a while, but eventually can come back again (while discussing the same issue happening between her and Al in their own marriage).  I also thought it a bit too convenient that she would eventually marry Fred, but I am a sucker for happy endings and all the characters seemed to have suffered enough.

 

It's also worth noting how many of the issues soldiers dealt with in the film are still relevant today.

[aradia22]

 

Another item--and I flirt with going off-topic here:  Grace of Monaco had its US premiere on Lifetime, I believe.  And I confess I watched it.  This is a movie that had a troubled production, and was poorly received in Cannes, then didn't get distributed by the Weinstein Company once it acquired it.

I read about it after it aired... I can't remember where. I watched the trailer and I was initially anticipating this movie's premiere. I know there were some troubles between the Weinstein Company and the director over the way the movie was being edited but ending up on Lifetime is certainly a fall from grace. (Haha. I'm so clever.) To bring it back to TCM, I don't have strong opinions on Grace Kelly. I've only seen High Society and Dial M For Murder. I know The Swan and To Catch a Thief are sometimes on the schedule so I don't know if it's an issue of TCM not showing her movies enough, her not having a large enough body of work, or my just missing the movies when they air but she hasn't grabbed me the way other actresses have watching one or two films. So far I haven't seen the essential quality that made her such a big star. 

[Milburn Stone]

So far I haven't seen the essential quality that made her such a big star. 

 

Then I doubt that you will.

[magicdog]

I haven't seen the essential quality that made her such a big star.

 

 

I always thought it was her tendency to get cast in ice princess type roles.

[Julia]

I thought she did a pretty decent job on The Country Girl.

[prican58]

Watch 1933's Blood Money, where Dee plays a kleptomaniac, a nymphomaniac, and so on.

If she is half as good as Jean Simmons (who along with Ingrid Bergman are the most beautiful women to grace a screen) was in Angel Face as a murderous psycho, then sign me up.

 

I found on youtube Sleep My Love with  Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche. Haven't watched yet but it is so rarely seen (never seen it on TCM ever) and it's hard to find on dvd. I love Ameche to pieces and he plays a bad dude in this. Has anybody ever seen it? The two of them were great in Midnight and want to see them again in this. 

[prican58]

Fred and Ginger fix?  Top Hat is on at noon on TCM  on Sunday. Good for a rainy day which his what we're gonna get in NYC. Yay!

Edited May 31, 2015 by prican58

[editorgrrl]

Grace of Monaco had its US premiere on Lifetime, I believe. And I confess I watched it. This is a movie that had a troubled production, and was poorly received in Cannes, then didn't get distributed by the Weinstein Company once it acquired it. Nicole Kidman played Grace Kelly.

It has a thread: http://forums.previously.tv/topic/24763-grace-of-monaco/

The industrial safety film with the best theme tune ever is on TCM June 7 at 5:15 a.m., Shake Hands With Danger: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZLYUguo0uNM

Edited May 31, 2015 by editorgrrl

[Bastet]

The Citizen Kane of safety films, as the YouTube poster says.

[Charlie Baker]

Watched Fury last night--a movie that really shook me when I saw it as a kid.  It might come across a little heavy handed now, or maybe more as an allegory, but it still offers a sharp, relevant look at mob mentality and how it develops.  And Sylvia Sidney is stunning in it.  (This time, too, I was able to notice how good Edward Ellis (of the original Thin Man) is as the sheriff who struggles to remain decent in the face of that mob.)

Edited May 31, 2015 by Charlie Baker

[Bastet]

(This time, too, I was able to notice how good Edward Ellis (of the original Thin Man) is as the sheriff who struggles to remain decent in the face of that mob.

 

I regard him as an unsung hero of character acting.  He really brought something to each of his roles (at least those I've seen), even when there wasn't much there on the page.

[HelenBaby]

I read about it after it aired... I can't remember where. I watched the trailer and I was initially anticipating this movie's premiere. I know there were some troubles between the Weinstein Company and the director over the way the movie was being edited but ending up on Lifetime is certainly a fall from grace. (Haha. I'm so clever.) To bring it back to TCM, I don't have strong opinions on Grace Kelly. I've only seen High Society and Dial M For Murder. I know The Swan and To Catch a Thief are sometimes on the schedule so I don't know if it's an issue of TCM not showing her movies enough, her not having a large enough body of work, or my just missing the movies when they air but she hasn't grabbed me the way other actresses have watching one or two films. So far I haven't seen the essential quality that made her such a big star.

I'm not a huge fan of Kelly's but the few films she made pop up all the time on TCM. Especially Mogambo, which seems to show at least every other month. She was even Star of the Month a couple of years ago, although they had to show some of her early tv work since she had so few films.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I'm not a huge fan of Kelly's but the few films she made pop up all the time on TCM. Especially Mogambo, which seems to show at least every other mont

I kind of feel the same.     Mogambo has the problem of not being Red Dust, even though Kelly and Gardner are heartstoppingly beautiful.  I'll be honest - my opinion of her changed for the better when I read an interview with Gore Vidal in which he smirked, "Grace Kelly? Of course she fucked all her leading men. She was famous for that in this town."  Then I started kind of looking for that in her performances - in terms of finding it I'd recommend Rear Window and To Catch a Thief which show more of her playfulness and not just her perfect face.

[Charlie Baker]

So often I will check in on TCM when I should be doing something else like working, and I make a discovery.  Today it was The Squall, an early talkie with my beloved Myrna Loy in one of her "exotic" roles.  A very stagy melodrama, based on a play, about a Hungarian family who takes in a gypsy girl who's run away from her caravan and "master" during a storm.  She then proceeds to vamp it up towards every man in the household--father, son, servant.   Myrna looks incredibly beautiful in this, and really does give it her all, but it's a hopeless cause with this script and static filmmaking.  She makes the rest of the cast look even worse than they are, which is considerably so. (With the exception of Zasu Pitts, who's firmly in her persona as a family servant.) There's a lot of exaggerated gesturing left over from the silents. Then there's Loretta Young, who looks so ethereally gorgeous, but as the son's girlfriend delivers her abysmal lines abysmally.  You couldn't have guessed from this picture she'd go on to the career she had.  There are elaborate miniatures for a lot of the exterior shots, which adds to the surreal feeling. Plus a singing gypsy chorus to wrap it up.  Alexander Korda, who also went on to better things, directed.  And it didn't go over all that well in 1929, I would guess.  Quoting the New York Times: 

 

 

The dialogue and the acting, however, are so pathetic that they discount any minor virtues this offering may possess, for even the discussions concerning love and the hardy embracing are open to ridicule.

 

I will watch Myrna Loy in anything, and this is definite proof.

[Bastet]

I watched that once for the same reason.  And, yeah, only once.  (Not that I didn't figure as much going in.)

 

But now you've made me realize I forgot to record From the Terrace yesterday.

[prican58]

there's Loretta Young, who looks so ethereally gorgeous

 

A few years ago I watched one of her early films (talkie) where she was a blonde. But I didn't know it was her and remember telling myself how it was a shame such a gorgeous woman didn't get the big studio push, But I kept watching and thinking she looked familiar.  Cue lightning bolt! It was Loretta and I was floored. I had never really thought she was that pretty but as a blonde she kicked my ass.

 

She was surely gorgeous and I rather like her now. The Bishop's Wife is my favorite of hers and I also like the one with Celeste Holm where they play nuns. 

 

BTW she was Ricardo Montalban's sister in law. Georgiana Young and Ricardo were married 63 years! Astounding! Also for anybody who grew up in the 60's/70's RM's brother Carlos starred as "El Exigente" in a series of coffee advertisements for Savarin Coffee in the 1960s and 1970s, Mindless trivia, Sorry for the digression.

 

I was watching Top Hat on Sunday and I never get tired of Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore's chemistry. So ridiculously funny! 

Also Erik Rhodes actually came to life for me during this viewing. He is buffoonish yet so lovably adorable as Beddini.

 

It may be my fave Fred and Ginger movie. But then there's Swing Time. Horton and Blore again, and again hysterical!

Edited June 2, 2015 by prican58

[ratgirlagogo]

 

 

I was watching Top Hat on Sunday and I never get tired of Edward Everett Horton and Eric Blore's chemistry. So ridiculously funny!

Also Erik Rhodes actually came to life for me during this viewing. He is buffoonish yet so lovably adorable as Beddini.

So true, and yet so seldom noted - how all the top notch character actors help hold these Astaire-Rogers confections together.  Also I learn from the IMDB that Erik Rhodes was born Ernest Sharpe in El Reno, Oklahoma (at that time [1906] still Indian Territory).  What the........?

[Rinaldo]

A few years ago I watched one of her early films (talkie) where she was a blonde. But I didn't know it was her and remember telling myself how it was a shame such a gorgeous woman didn't get the big studio push, But I kept watching and thinking she looked familiar.  Cue lightning bolt! It was Loretta and I was floored. I had never really thought she was that pretty but as a blonde she kicked my ass.

For a knockout appearance by Loretta Young, I must mention A Man's Castle from 1933. I don't think it has ever appeared on home video -- does TCM ever show it?  (YouTube has it in segments.) She and Spencer Tracy are marvelous in it, and (she especially) marvelously "real" and unaffected -- just luminous. I don't think I've seen her be quite like that before. Christopher Durang has acknowledged this movie, and her performance in particular, as the inspiration for the early-talkie "Shantytown" segment of his hilarious play History of the American Film.

[prican58]

So true, and yet so seldom noted - how all the top notch character actors help hold these Astaire-Rogers confections together.  Also I learn from the IMDB that Erik Rhodes was born Ernest Sharpe in El Reno, Oklahoma (at that time [1906] still Indian Territory).  What the........?

I know,right? So much information out there just waiting to be found out!  Character actors really are the life's blood of any film. Imagine if we just had Fred and Ginger without the krazy glue that is that supporting cast? I think we might get bored (well they never really bore me but you get my drift)

 

Rinaldo, I've seen that film before and it may have been on TCM. Can't imagine where else I'd seen it.  Truly fine film. 

Edited June 3, 2015 by prican58

[3pwood]

Rinaldo, I've seen that film before and it may have been on TCM. Can't imagine where else I'd seen it.  Truly fine film. 

 

Me too -- & fairly recently, maybe within the past year or so?  Definitely on TCM, unless it was FXM (the only other channel I get that runs old movies).  I remember being surprised because I thought I'd seen all of Spencer Tracy's movies.  It made an impression on me, very affecting (everyone in it, especially Marjorie Rambeau who saved the day).

[prican58]

It's odd how I don't really watch TCM on the regular anymore. Mostly b/c that's the one channel where the picture on my tv pixilates all the time. (my tv is a 1986 Zenith that  still works... but apparently not so well.)  But I do watch a lot of TCM Watch on line. I also watch those new movie channels like Movies, This! and a few others. The commercials don't bother me much. What's cool is that these channels are NYC local WPIX and WNEW (Fox) digital  channels. Finally they get a chance to showcase their catalog of old films that they used to air back in the day.

 

Plus there is so much on line. There's a site called archive dot org that has stuff in the Public Domain. Maybe classic movies are moving up on the food chain of tv viewing. Or maybe us Baby Boomers need our souls restored.

 

I'm liking it.

[bmoore4026]

This morning, they showed Face in the Crowd.  I was able to catch the last half hour of it.  Sweet mercy, Andy Griffith acted his butt off in that film.  And against a type he hadn't really set in stone yet.  Did he get an Oscar for this?

 

I forgot that Walter Matthau was in it, too.  With his young face and full head of hair, he was downright unrecognizable.

 

BTW, who was Lonesome Rhodes based on?  I read somewhere he was based on a real guy who really did reveal his true personality unsuspectingly while the sound was on.

 

I like to think The Duggar Family or Honey Boo-Boo's lot going through the same breakdown like the one at the end of the movie.  It's the schadenfreude in me.

 

Tonight, there's going to be a whole block of Bulldog Drummond movies.  I'm guessing that's going to be the theme for Thursdays this June.  I'll have to be sure to tell my dad.

[mariah23]

This morning, they showed Face in the Crowd.  I was able to catch the last half hour of it.  Sweet mercy, Andy Griffith acted his butt off in that film.  And against a type he hadn't really set in stone yet.  Did he get an Oscar for this?

 

I forgot that Walter Matthau was in it, too.  With his young face and full head of hair, he was downright unrecognizable.

 

BTW, who was Lonesome Rhodes based on?  I read somewhere he was based on a real guy who really did reveal his true personality unsuspectingly while the sound was on.

 

I like to think The Duggar Family or Honey Boo-Boo's lot going through the same breakdown like the one at the end of the movie.  It's the schadenfreude in me.

 

Tonight, there's going to be a whole block of Bulldog Drummond movies.  I'm guessing that's going to be the theme for Thursdays this June.  I'll have to be sure to tell my dad.

Griffith wasn't even nominated.  Also, for the longest time, Griffith wouldn't play roles like he did in Face.  He found it emotionally draining.  Lonesome Rhodes was based on TV host Arthur Godfrey.  Finally, the Bulldog Drummond movies will just be on tonight, so tell your dad today!

[ratgirlagogo]

 

But I do watch a lot of TCM Watch on line.

Sigh.  I am SO jealous.  When is fucking Time Warner going to cut a deal with Turner on this online stuff?

[bmoore4026]

Sigh.  I am SO jealous.  When is fucking Time Warner going to cut a deal with Turner on this online stuff?

 

Gotta ask Charter now.

[prican58]

Sigh.  I am SO jealous.  When is fucking Time Warner going to cut a deal with Turner on this online stuff?

Not understanding....Can you not get the TCM site to play the On Demand movies they have?

[Rinaldo]

Further Adventures in Rinaldo's Undoing His Cinematic Ignorance:

 

(For a cinephile, I'm constantly astonished by the classics, I haven't yet seen.) I had never seen Gilda, and everybody talks about it. Well, thanks to TCM last night, now I have. People aren't kidding about the plot being inscrutable. Who did what to whom offscreen? And from what vantage point is it all being narrated? But it hardly matters when the creepy, erotically obsessed atmosphere gets going. And man, Rita Hayworth. I mean, she got my heart palpitating again and again -- what must she do to a straight man?? Her "Put the Blame On Mame" quasi-strip deserves all the fame (and parody) it's had over the years. The whole movie is undoubtedly some kind of unique artifact; that it's not a "great film" really doesn't matter, when it's so hard to get out of one's head.

[Charlie Baker]

Time Warner has a handful of TCM movies on its On Demand channel.  But TW subscribers cannot access Watch TCM online, which has a far bigger selection.

[ratgirlagogo]

Yes, Time Warner subscribers can't watch ANY of the Turner channels online - not the archived stuff, not live streaming.     I've never understood why this is since Turner is PART of Time Warner.  Must be some legal snafu I don't understand?  But such is the case.  Boo.

Edited June 5, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[Milburn Stone]

Further Adventures in Rinaldo's Undoing His Cinematic Ignorance:

 

(For a cinephile, I'm constantly astonished by the classics, I haven't yet seen.) 

 

I identify. Just the other night, I saw part of a musical I'd never seen one minute of before, Ziegfeld Girl (1941). Considering it stars young Judy Garland, along with Lana Turner, Jimmy Stewart, Eve Arden, Charles Winninger, et. al., you'd think I'd have gone out of my way to catch a glimpse of it at some point. (Another factor: The other MGM films with "Ziegfeld" in the title probably made me think I'd seen this one even though I hadn't.) I didn't expect much and had my expectations exceeded. The big number in the first twenty minutes, "You Stepped Out of a Dream," was pretty darn fantastic. The cliché scene in which Judy Garland doesn't want to leave the vaudeville act with pop Charles Winninger was actually affecting. Lana Turner was can't-take-your-eyes-off-her every moment she was on screen. Eve Arden was her customary great self. After twenty minutes it was time to go to bed but I set the machine to record the rest of it,  

Edited June 5, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[Julia]

This morning, they showed Face in the Crowd.  I was able to catch the last half hour of it.  Sweet mercy, Andy Griffith acted his butt off in that film.  And against a type he hadn't really set in stone yet.  Did he get an Oscar for this? ...

 

BTW, who was Lonesome Rhodes based on?  I read somewhere he was based on a real guy who really did reveal his true personality unsuspectingly while the sound was on.

 

A Face in the Crowd was magic, not just for Griffith, but as the only movie where I really got why people were excited about Patricia Neal. 

 

Lonesome Rhodes was based on TV host Arthur Godfrey.

 

This is what I heard as well, only Godfrey didn't get caught by a microphone screwup. He had a singer named Julius LaRosa on his show, and because of something to do with contract negotiations he fired him on the air without any warning. It didn't do him good.

 

Yes, Time Warner subscribers can't watch ANY of the Turner channels online - not the archived stuff, not live streaming.     I've never understood why this is since Turner is PART of Time Warner.  Must be some legal snafu I don't understand?  But such is the case.  Boo.

 

I looked this up, back when i had TWC, because I had the same question. Turner is part of Time Warner. TWC isn't. It was, but it was spun off.

 

I identify. Just the other night, I saw part of a musical I'd never seen one minute of before, Ziegfeld Girl (1941). Considering it stars young Judy Garland, along with Lana Turner, Jimmy Stewart, Eve Arden, Charles Winninger, et. al., you'd think I'd have gone out of my way to catch a glimpse of it at some point. (Another factor: The other MGM films with "Ziegfeld" in the title probably made me think I'd seen this one even though I hadn't.) I didn't expect much and had my expectations exceeded. The big number in the first twenty minutes, "You Stepped Out of a Dream," was pretty darn fantastic. The cliché scene in which Judy Garland doesn't want to leave the vaudeville act with pop Charles Winninger was actually affecting. Lana Turner was can't-take-your-eyes-off-her every moment she was on screen. Eve Arden was her customary great self. After twenty minutes it was time to go to bed but I set the machine to record the rest of it,  

 

It's funny, isn't it? The only one of the "girls" who looked like a Ziegfeld girl was Hedy Lamarr, and the other two wiped her off the screen.

[HelenBaby]

On A Face in the Crowd it's gotten more acclaim over the years but when it came out! I think it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and Kazan sort of was a persona non grata. Time has been good to both the film and Kazan.

A Man's Castle does pop up on TCM occasionally. A lot of people like it but Tracy is so mean to Young's character for 90% of the movie it's hard for me to watch and see a great love story.

Edited June 6, 2015 by HelenBaby

[CMH1981]

I just got done watching Travels With My Aunt, and boy does that film look bad.  I'm guessing it was filmed on videotape instead of film stock, b/c it reminded me of the movie version of Mame w/ Lucille Ball which was filmed on videotape as well...right?  Maggie Smith looked garrish w/the red hair and caked on makeup and lipstick.  

 

The movie was okay, but for some reason I went into this thinking this was the other Maggie Smith movie, Room With A View, don't ask me why.

 

I read some history of this movie and it was originally a vehicle for Katherine Hepburn and to be honest with the script as is I can't see Kate in this role.  I know she was presented the film, and chose to rewrite the script herself but her version was turned down so she walked, yet they used part of her script.  Maggie Smith is great in this movie, overacting...yes but the role calls for it.

 

The movie made me think of Auntie Mame, like this could have been a sequel of sorts.

 

So if they remade this movie and stuck more to the book, who do you think could pull this off?  I think Meryl Streep or Helena Bonham Carter could do it justice.  If Meryl, they could have one of her daughters play the younger versions of the character easily.

[Milburn Stone]

Have now watched another half hour or so of Ziegfeld Girl. It's no Citizen Kane, but wow, when Judy Garland begins her slowed-down, unhokey rendition of "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows"--well, it's one of the rare theatrical auditions in movie history in which the slack-jawed reaction of the auditioners is a perfect stand-in for the reaction of the audience.

 

Also, getting to see Jimmy Stewart playing an unsympathetic guy in this early stage of his stardom is interesting. I suspect he'll be "redeemed" by the end (Lana Turner can't possibly end up with that effete, Limey-accented stuffed-shirt), but he's pretty convincing as a lout.

[aradia22]

I can't remember if I posted about Ziegfeld Girl here or on the old site.

[prican58]

Ziegfeld Girl is a film I enjoy mostly for seeing the very young Judy, Lana and Jimmy. Lana is someone that I have never really enjoyed much when she was older. Her looks did not move me and I never found her to be a more than passable actress. However, the young Lana was indeed a knockout. So very pretty and I see why she had a following. I actually like her earlier performances and she seemed to have a certain vulnerability. 

 

I watched A Little Romance on TCM today. I love that it's playing so many more 70's movies (1979)> I had always wanted to see it and I do remember Diane Lane getting very good reviews. The movie charmed me from minute one. Nice little picture. Olivier was so very good in it and he had a lovely rapport with both young actors.

 

Has anybody seen this?  Seems like it's a replacement for Essentials Jr  http://moviecamp.tcm.com/schedule

 

OK folks, my TCM dream has come true! There will be having Don Ameche films during prime time on June 15! I so love him!  The bonus is that I will be off from work the next day so I can actually watch these. I am excited.  

Edited June 8, 2015 by prican58