TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

I think people in the profession would disagree. I've heard more than one actor (actress specifically, actually) of my acquaintance instinctively name her as the standard of excellence. As in, "Of course, I'm not a Streep or Rowlands."

[Crisopera]

I wanted to see Dancing Co-Ed (1939) because I adore swing music and wanted to see Artie Shaw, my favorite bandleader.  He (and his band, which included the phenomenal 21-year-old Buddy Rich on drums) was amazing.  He was apparently a really terrible person - 8 marriages, 3 of which lasted less than one year.  The movie?  Fabulously stupid.  At the end (don't ask why), a choice has to be made between Ann Rutherford and Lana Turner about who's going to star in a movie.  

They choose Ann Rutherford! Sweet-faced girl, but her and not the 17-year-old Lana Turner!? Uh-huh.

.  Not really worth watching, unless you love swing the way I do, but entertainingly silly.

[Julia]

Well, at least Lana Turner got to keep Artie Shaw (briefly).

[Bastet]

You may be right.  She did a lot of TV work and a lot of Cassavetes films ... maybe for many people, she wasn't on their radar until her '90s films, or maybe not even until The Notebook. 

[CMH1981]

Rowland came to my attention in the Sandra Bullock film Hope Floats.  She was great in that film, as for the Notebook she was okay I guess.  I am interested in seeing some of her other work so my fingers are crossed that TCM gives her a day in the upcoming months to honor her honorary Academy Award.

[roseha]

Many people feel Gena Rowlands is brilliant. I remember James Garner saying "She's never given a bad performance."  I'm glad they chose to honor her.  It's true she tended to concentrate on working with her late husband John Cassavetes, which maybe kept her under the radar somewhat, but I think it's well deserved.

[Bastet]

I remember James Garner saying "She's never given a bad performance."

 

That's high praise, because I don't think Garner ever gave a bad performance, either.

 

I don't like Hope Floats, but sometimes I'll watch it when it's on TV just for Rowlands.  And she's fantastic in Playing by Heart.  I generally can't stomach Sean Connery thanks to his "eh, it's fine to hit women" bullshit, but their storyline is my favorite of that film.

[elle]

I just watched Penelope (1966) with Natalie Wood for the first time today. Oh my gosh, I loved it so much. I was charmed from the opening sequence but Natalie Wood is undeniably the star of this movie. Top of her game. Just so charming and likable and in control. I could just sit back and enjoy the movie. I trusted her to steer the ship. She looked fantastic. I loved all the costume and hair changes in this movie. The script was solid even if it did get a little too silly at times (obvious scene to get her in her underwear is obvious). My only criticism is that I kind of wish she'd ended up with Peter Falk. They had great chemistry. And I used to really like Columbo. Just fantastic. It put me in a really great mood.

It is a fun movie.  Natalie Wood was beautiful and she could do comedy just as well as drama.  Don't you feel sorry for her when she is frustrated in her plans because everyone is corrupt?  My favorite of those who try to take advandtage of her are the "Russian"? dressmaker and accomplice.  While I agree she and Peter Falk did have great chemistry, for the story's sake she had to get back with her husband.  (and really can you think of someone with whom she didn't have chemistry - some better than others, but not simply no chemistry)

 

Have you watched The Great Race with her and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk?  Great comedic timing and great beauty!

 

 

a small disclaimer - after my initial happiness of the song from PYW on the Amazon commercial, its overplay has put the commercial firmly in the annoying thread.  Still love the song, and I hum it every time I hear it, just can not tolerate the commercial.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Have you watched The Great Race with her and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk?  Great comedic timing and great beauty!

O my god I LOVE The Great Race!  Always have.  And she is so beautiful and (for once!) likeably feisty.  The glint on Tony Curtis' teeth!  And Lemmon and Falk together as a comedy team  - how could anyone not love this movie?  A serious question since apparently plenty of people don't.:(

[Julia]

O my god I LOVE The Great Race!  Always have.  And she is so beautiful and (for once!) likeably feisty.  The glint on Tony Curtis' teeth!  And Lemmon and Falk together as a comedy team  - how could anyone not love this movie?  A serious question since apparently plenty of people don't.:(

 

I guess that's my UO? Tony Curtis threw me out of the movie. By that time I thought he was starting to get that slightly boiled looking Dick van Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang face where you can sorta see that he's not going to be pretty that much longer. It creeped me out a little.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Julia

[Milburn Stone]

I guess that's my UO? Tony Curtis threw me out of the movie. By that time I thought he was starting to get that slightly boiled looking Dick van Dyke in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang face where you can sorta see that he's not going to be pretty that much longer. It creeped me out a little.

 

You're not alone, Julia. While I did find Natalie Wood intoxicatingly beautiful in the movie, and while I'm usually a Blake Edwards fan, a picture of The Great Race is in my dictionary next to the word "labored."

[Rinaldo]

I hate to be a spoilsport, but I kind of feel the same way. I remember just loving it in when my college friends and I went to see it, so I seized the chance to rent it a couple of years ago (I hadn't seen it since). Natalie Wood is still a lot of fun (and quite lovely), Jack Lemmon plays the villain to the hilt, but somehow the air had gone out of the soufflé for me. I don't know if I just hadn't seen that many screen comedies for comparison at that age, or what... but even the comic set-pieces that I remembered as classic (like the pie fight) now seemed like indications of where the fun would be, rather than actually enjoyable in themselves. I almost wish I hadn't decided to re-watch it; I preferred my earlier memories.

[Crisopera]

I am just not a fan of Blake Edwards.  I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't love Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

[Rinaldo]

Don't kid yourself. It's widely disliked these days. The Mickey Rooney "performance" by itself is enough to negate everything else about it. If I'm going to swoon over Audrey, I'll pick Roman Holiday or Funny Face or Charade or Two for the Road.

[ratgirlagogo]

Well, there you go. An Unpopular Opinion indeed.   Fuck all y'all I still love The Great Race - I do understand how "labored" it is but that's true of much of the PInk Panther stuff also.  I'm willing to go with it and enjoy. 

Edited September 2, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[aradia22]

 

Have you watched The Great Race with her and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon and Peter Falk?  Great comedic timing and great beauty!

No, I've seen it on the schedule and maybe caught a minute or two. I remember pie-throwing. But I'll try and remember to check it out. :)

[Crs97]

I seriously dislike Breakfast at Tiffany's, and I forgot Mickey Rooney was even in it! Were we supposed to like any of the characters? I saw it over 20 years ago, and I still want my two hours back.

[Milburn Stone]

I wish George Peppard were somebody other than George Peppard--although I've come to wonder over the years if the deadness he brings to every part just happens to be perfect for the deadness in Paul. I like the rest of the movie. I even think a case can be made that Mickey Rooney's Yunioshi is no worse than the non-Italian actors who have played Italian stereotypes over the years, the non-Jewish actors who have played Jewish stereotypes, ad infinitum. And the party scene is the archetypal Blake Edwards party scene, which means it's classic.

[elle]

I am just not a fan of Blake Edwards.  I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't love Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

and

Well, there you go. An Unpopular Opinion indeed.   Fuck all y'all I still love The Great Race - I do understand how "labored" it is but that's true of much of the PInk Panther stuff also.  I'm willing to go with it and enjoy. 

And here we all are!  A lovely place for all peoples of opinions.  :0)

 

No, I've seen it on the schedule and maybe caught a minute or two. I remember pie-throwing. But I'll try and remember to check it out. :)

It is so much more than the pie throwing scene!  Blake Edward's version of Around the World in 80 Days (more or less) with those Magnificent Men in Their Automobiles with just a little Prisoner of Zenda thrown in for whatever reason.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I wish George Peppard were somebody other than George Peppard--although I've come to wonder over the years if the deadness he brings to every part just happens to be perfect for the deadness in Paul.

I've never much cared for Peppard either and he spoils the movie for me as well. I'm intrigued by what you say about deadness.  I never thought of that - though  surely we can't be expected to see Paul in the movie at least as embodying "deadness" - unless you mean that Holly brings him back to life?  I understand how charming everyone finds Audrey Hepburn in this film but I keep thinking that Marilyn Monroe would have been a better choice for the actual character (just as Truman Capote did).  The Mickey Rooney stuff is pretty hard to sit through, especially since there's so much of it.  

 

elle:It is so much more than the pie throwing scene!  Blake Edward's version of Around the World in 80 Days (more or less) with those Magnificent Men in Their Automobiles with just a little Prisoner of Zenda thrown in for whatever reason.

Oh my yes.  Plus one of course.  Two Jack Lemmons!  perfect.

[AstaCharles]

Well, there you go. An Unpopular Opinion indeed. Fuck all y'all I still love The Great Race - I do understand how "labored" it is but that's true of much of the PInk Panther stuff also. I'm willing to go with it and enjoy.

I don't know if it's an UO, but I love Edwards' Operation Petticoat. I thought a repressed grumpy Cary Grant was kinda sexy.

[KFC]

I wish George Peppard were somebody other than George Peppard--although I've come to wonder over the years if the deadness he brings to every part just happens to be perfect for the deadness in Paul. I like the rest of the movie. I even think a case can be made that Mickey Rooney's Yunioshi is no worse than the non-Italian actors who have played Italian stereotypes over the years, the non-Jewish actors who have played Jewish stereotypes, ad infinitum. And the party scene is the archetypal Blake Edwards party scene, which means it's classic.

 

I think there's a world of difference when a white actor portrays a character of color on the screen, especially to that level of caricature. The pulled back eyes, the buckteeth, there's something very minstrel-y and "let's poke fun at his otherness" about his performance in a way that I could overlook, say Luise Rainer and Paul Muni playing yellowface in "The Good Earth." Two different genres, obviously, but the point still stands.

 

Asians don't have nearly the history of multilayered portrayal of their white counterparts (including Italian and Jewish), so to me it is still quite offensive to this day and absolutely worth singling out as unacceptable and cringeworthy.

[Milburn Stone]

I think there's a world of difference when a white actor portrays a character of color on the screen, especially to that level of caricature. The pulled back eyes, the buckteeth, there's something very minstrel-y and "let's poke fun at his otherness" about his performance...

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I do wonder how Japanese people receive Rooney's performance. I mean, at the very least I'd expect them to find it ridiculous. But do they find it hurtful? That's what I don't know. We can all agree the portrayal is asinine, but in the absence of their finding it injurious, I think the crime is a misdemeanor.

 

Like I say, I don't know how most Japanese people feel about it. Do they feel sad? Or do they merely say, "Stupid Americans"? It could turn out either way, and I'd be interested to know.

Edited September 3, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[Ruby25]

I used to like it, but the Mickey Rooney stuff just dwarfs everything else in it now. There's way too much of it- I think you can only get through the movie by fast forwarding his scenes. Audrey's great as always and her outfits are amazing, but I say go for Roman Holiday or Sabrina over this one now. Although I do love the ending in the rain still.

[ratgirlagogo]

I love the cat.  Orangey.   He was great in so many things and did he ever get an Oscar nomination? No he did not. Patsy award?  Please.  Like you could ever put THAT one over on a cat.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangey

Edited September 4, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[Crs97]

Just finished watching Executive Suite for the umpteenth time.  Love that movie.  While it's a little dated, his speech at the end still rings true today.  And Barbara Stanwyck is awesome in everything!

[Charlie Baker]

Yesterday I caught The Hitch-Hiker, a modest thriller that's notable for a couple reasons.  It was directed by Ida Lupino, whom we've talked about here a while ago, as something of a pioneer for women directors. She produced her own projects independently and then went on to direct quite a bit of TV, I believe.  And the acting was strong.  Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy played two friends on a hunting trip to Mexico who pick up the wrong guy--an on-the-run killer.  He was played by William Talman, whose greatest claim to fame came later as the prosecutor who always lost to Perry Mason.  Talman is very good and suggests a range he surely couldn't show on that courtroom show.

[CMH1981]

I watched the Hitch-hiker as well and it wasn't what I thought it would be.  I guess I built it up more in my head based on other's reviews and comments.  It wasn't bad but it just wasn't that terrifying to me, although he was a psychopath.

 

That being said I ended up purchasing it about a month ago on blu-ray b/c I didn't think TCM would ever show this film, and here we are.  I ended up recording it on my dvr before getting the chance to watch the blu-ray.  This happens all the time, I want to watch a certain film and can't wait for TCM to show it and as soon as I purchase it ( if it's available ) TCM ends up showing it like a month later.

 

I've noticed as well that any classic film that is released on blu-ray that TCM ends up showing said film within a month after it's released.  Is it coincidence or just TCM showing off the new hd-master of the film for viewers?

[elle]

I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't love Breakfast at Tiffany's.

More thoughts on this movie from the serious to the trivial.

 

While Rooney's performance is universally reviled, it seems that another questionable casting choice, that of Marlon Brando in The Tea House of the August Moon is rarely mentioned.  I wonder if it is because it is not a movie that is shown as frequently?

 

As another movie that seems to be shown not as frequently, it seems that when recommending other better Audrey Hepburn movies, How to Steal a Million does not make the list.  I include myself as one who forgets to mention it.  It is fun, stylish, and includes the beautiful young Peter O'Toole.

 

And cutting to the chase on the trivial, while looking up a Hey, It's That Guy! character, I find out that he is Stanley Adams, who played Juan in The Lilies of the Field, I was shocked to find out that he also played "Rusty Trawler" in BaT!  Not once had I thought to see who played that character, not that interested, but what a character is playing him!

Edited September 5, 2015 by elle

[Milburn Stone]

Good points, good post, elle.

 

FWIW, Audrey's performance in How to Steal a Million was hailed once before in this thread. : )

 

http://forums.previously.tv/topic/1913-tcm-the-greatest-movie-channel/page-38#entry1280986

[Wiendish Fitch]

 

As another movie that seems to be shown not as frequently, it seems that when recommending other better Audrey Hepburn movies, How to Steal a Million does not make the list.  I include myself as one who forgets to mention it.  It is fun, stylish, and includes the beautiful young Peter O'Toole.

 

 

Love How to Steal a Million, it's so unfairly underrated. And, boy, I never thought Audrey Hepburn had any competition in the sheer prettiness department... until I saw Peter O'Toole in this. It wasn't until I saw Million that I finally understood all the fuss about O'Toole. Too bad all that boozing prematurely destroyed his looks.

[Rinaldo]

While Rooney's performance is universally reviled, it seems that another questionable casting choice, that of Marlon Brando in The Tea House of the August Moon is rarely mentioned.  I wonder if it is because it is not a movie that is shown as frequently?

I can only speculate, but I think that speculation has a great deal to do with it: Tea House of the August Moon is simply forgotten (or nearly so) these days, so there's no point making a fuss about it, whereas there's a lot that remains appealing about Breakfast at Tiffany's, if only....

 

This gets even more speculative, but I would also venture that each case is a bit different, and gets a different reaction based on its merits. Rooney's performance isn't just an ethnic impersonation, it's a high-intensity caricature that assumes that just being Japanese is funny and preposterous. Alec Guinness played Japanese too (in A Majority of One, which admittedly has pretty much vanished now), and as late as 1984 played Indian (in A Passage to India); the latter in particular got some "seriously? alongside actual Indian actors?" reactions, but as his character was restrained and dignified, his casting was mostly just regretted (and puzzled over) without becoming a cause celebre.

[Milburn Stone]

This gets even more speculative, but I would also venture that each case is a bit different, and gets a different reaction based on its merits. Rooney's performance isn't just an ethnic impersonation, it's a high-intensity caricature that assumes that just being Japanese is funny and preposterous. Alec Guinness played Japanese too (in A Majority of One, which admittedly has pretty much vanished now), and as late as 1984 played Indian (in A Passage to India); the latter in particular got some "seriously? alongside actual Indian actors?" reactions, but as his character was restrained and dignified, his casting was mostly just regretted (and puzzled over) without becoming a cause celebre.

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but because the subject is interesting to me...

 

We seem to forgive broad caricature when it's about nationality as opposed to race. For instance, the actor Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman, and voice of Fred Flintstone) played a comic-book caricature of an Italian-American immigrant on radio's Life with Luigi. (I hear it occasionally on the SiriusXM old-time radio channel. It blows, basically.) True, that show is kind of obscure these days. But it's not considered verboten to air it, despite that there's nothing subtle or "respectful" about Reed's portrayal--it fits your definition of "we're supposed to think that just being Italian is funny and preposterous." (Not that BaT has been removed from the airways, either, but Rooney's performance is widely reviled as being beyond the pale.)

Edited September 5, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[aradia22]

 

Oops, sorry for the double post. Something went wrong. Fixed now!

Edited September 5, 2015 by aradia22

[elle]

Thank you for posting the you tube video, aradia22!  It was very informative to see "live" reactions to the performances which we were just discussing.  Good points, Rinaldo and Milburn Stone!

 

 

 

FWIW, Audrey's performance in How to Steal a Million was hailed once before in this thread. : )

Oh yes, I know!   My point was that as you look at the post above where people are recommending other Audrey movies to watch besides BaT, HtSaM is often overlooked, and I include myself as one who forgets to mention it.

Edited September 5, 2015 by elle

[Milburn Stone]

Thank you for posting the you tube video, aradia22!  It was very informative to see "live" reactions to the performances which we were just discussing.  

 

Agree. It goes some way toward answering the question I had. Thanks, aradia.

 

It occurs to me that one reason Blake Edwards thought it was OK to make fun of Mr. Yunioshi's Japanese-ness is that it was only 16 years after the end of WW2. (In which Edwards served, in the Coast Guard, according to the bio I just looked up on wikipedia.) In other words, 1999 to our 2015, or "just yesterday," as I prefer to call it. It takes longer than that for some creators--and some audience members--to let bygones be bygones.

Edited September 5, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[elle]

I can only speculate, but I think that speculation has a great deal to do with it: Tea House of the August Moon is simply forgotten (or nearly so) these days, so there's no point making a fuss about it, whereas there's a lot that remains appealing about Breakfast at Tiffany's, if only....

 

This gets even more speculative, but I would also venture that each case is a bit different, and gets a different reaction based on its merits. Rooney's performance isn't just an ethnic impersonation, it's a high-intensity caricature that assumes that just being Japanese is funny and preposterous. Alec Guinness played Japanese too (in A Majority of One, which admittedly has pretty much vanished now), and as late as 1984 played Indian (in A Passage to India); the latter in particular got some "seriously? alongside actual Indian actors?" reactions, but as his character was restrained and dignified, his casting was mostly just regretted (and puzzled over) without becoming a cause celebre.

I think it was during a TCM intro to the movie, that it was mentioned that choice of Rosalind Russell as the lead (Bertha) in that movie was considered controversial because she was Roman Catholic and the character was Jewish.

 

Agree. It goes some way toward answering the question I had. Thanks, aradia.

 

It occurs to me that one reason Blake Edwards thought it was OK to make fun of Mr. Yunioshi's Japanese-ness is that it was only 16 years after the end of WW2. (In which Edwards served, in the Coast Guard, according to the bio I just looked up on wikipedia.) In other words, 1999 to our 2015, or "just yesterday," as I prefer to call it. It takes longer than that for some creators--and some audience members--to let bygones be bygones.

According to the trivia on IMDB: 

In the 2006 short documentary Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Making of a Classic (2006), Blake Edwards said that when the movie was made, he didn't think about the implications of casting a white actor, Mickey Rooney, in a role as a Japanese person, but "looking back, I wish I had never done it... and I would give anything to be able to recast it."

 

J Carroll Naish  was Luigi. Alan Reed was Pasquale. ...snip and add... (and voice of Fred Flintstone)

 

lan Reed - that explains the picture of Fred Flintstone instead of his own on his imdb page.

 

J Carroll Naish - one of the greatest character actors of all time.

 

Wondering what TCM was planning for Labor Day, I was surprised to find that they are planning a "Telluride Tribute" which they have being doing since 1998 (?!)

 

 

In honor of the Telluride Film Festival, held on Labor Day weekend for 42 years in the charming mountain village of Telluride, Colorado, we present a special salute to the Festival--a TCM tradition since 1998. Our 24- hour tribute features films that have either played at the Festival in past years or have a special connection to it.

Edited September 5, 2015 by elle

[Julia]

Alec Guinness played Japanese too (in A Majority of One, which admittedly has pretty much vanished now), and as late as 1984 played Indian (in A Passage to India); the latter in particular got some "seriously? alongside actual Indian actors?" reactions, but as his character was restrained and dignified, his casting was mostly just regretted (and puzzled over) without becoming a cause celebre.

 

Yeah, one of those people reacting would have been me. But it wasn't so much that he was playing an indian character. It was that he was playing an indian character who represented the history and traditions of India which were overwritten by the british narrative to make the indians minor supporting characters to westerners in their own country.

 

Which made it a little weird, right there at the end when essentially the british moviemakers hired a british actor to spark a british guy's epiphany about colonialism while the indian hero/victim of the movie is disposed of offscreen. Which unless David Lean had a much darker sense of humor than I generally credit him with, was an odd choice.

[voiceover]

Ahhhh, David Copperfield!  While Ronald Colman & Tale of Two Cities is wonderful, and Alastair Sims & A Christmas Carol remains my favorite performance and adaptation of Dickens...every time I see David, I love it more.  Especially the perfect casting choices of W.C. Fields as Micawber & Edna May Oliver as David's aunt (Where's HER August celebration??).  Maureen O'Sullivan manages to make Dora childlike without being barf-making.

[Rick Kitchen]

I'm surprised that Yellowface video didn't mention John Wayne as Genghis Khan.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

We seem to forgive broad caricature when it's about nationality as opposed to race. For instance, the actor Alan Reed (born Herbert Theodore Bergman, and voice of Fred Flintstone) played a comic-book caricature of an Italian-American immigrant on radio's Life with Luigi. (I hear it occasionally on the SiriusXM old-time radio channel. It blows, basically.)

I agree with this.  Life with Luigi is probably my least favorite old-time radio show - I hate it even more than Mr. Keen (Mr Rat's most hated show).  It's not just the caricature of the Italians but the endless jokes about Pasquale's fat (and therefore OBVIOUSLY HIDEOUS AND UNMARRIAGEABLE) daughter Rosa.

Edited September 6, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[aradia22]

I've been trying to watch Made in Paris (1966) for days and never having quite enough time. I finally managed it today. It's a weird movie. You expect a standard rom-com but it seems confused on what it wants to say about gender and consent and morality. It was hard to be on any character's side. Maybe it would have worked differently with another actress portraying the part differently and wearing different outfits but I didn't buy Ann Margret in all her glamour as this prim innocent. And she did seem rather underqualified. I didn't get the sense that she was that great at her job besides throwaway lines here and there.

 

They didn't do much to make you like her. It was a like sex comedy but also weirdly chaste. Again, weird messages about consent and personal responsibility and morality.

 

I liked looking at the clothes.

 

It was nice to see Louis Jordan in another movie besides Gigi. I thought he had the best performance and character of the group. They were very consistent in who he was.

 

How did she end up with Ted at the end? That was an overly long journey to get back to the same place... especially after learning that place is kind of a bland, dumb jerk with a bad temper (which we sort of knew to begin with).

[Milburn Stone]

I've been trying to watch Made in Paris (1966) for days and never having quite enough time. I finally managed it today. It's a weird movie. You expect a standard rom-com but it seems confused on what it wants to say about gender and consent and morality.

 

I haven't seen it so I don't know what you mean, but was it confused about gender and consent and morality--or was it more that you didn't like what it said about gender and consent and morality?

[aradia22]

Okay, spoilers for this movie.

 

No, it seemed confused. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if they had one script and rewrote it to be more/less conservative. Sometimes that magically ends up more or less working like Pretty Woman.

So, for instance, Ann Margret is getting ready for a date with her boss/boss' son. It's a fine establishing scene but they make her change her dress so now I've seen her in her underwear within the first five minutes of the movie. Then they go out to dinner and there's no talking at all so far (I actually liked the vibe of this whole opening sequence) and it's a lavish dinner and then they dance. Then at her door it seems like he's going to kiss her and she may or may not let him, her eyes are come hither but she leans back slightly (again, no one has said a word which is why I'm reading body language). Then a couple comes out of the elevator and she slips into her apartment. And he follows her in because he still had the key. And he makes himself at home on the couch while she makes coffee. Again, no one is talking. He puts on a record and takes off his shows and turns down the lights. She comes back and turns the lights on and he grabs her and kisses her. She ends up hitting on the head with something (I think an ashtray). At work the next day, he's mad at her and says she could have said no. She says he never gave her a chance. This is a little weird because no one was talking in that opening sequence.

 

She tells him that she wants to be judged on what she does at work and not after hours and wants to keep things professional. So he says something about her leading him on. When he says something about her come hither smile she says she's just friendly. And when he talks about her wiggle, she says that all women wiggle. And later he comes over to her apartment with dinner (sandwiches and champagne) to celebrate the job he's helped her get because the woman who used to have it (Irene) is getting married. And she seems to be happy to be friends again until he leaves and comes back saying that he forgot something. What he forgot is to call his friend in Paris to make sure he looks out for her when she gets there. And then she kisses him. I should also say that at some point in the middle of this he told her he'd developed an attraction to girls who say no, or something to that effect. So I thought that was where the story was heading, though it was a little muddled. Good girl doesn't give the milk away and snags a husband. Pretty straightforward.

 

Then it gets really confusing when she goes to Paris. Louis Jordan comes into her bedroom expecting Irene but when he sees it's her, he tries to sneak out only for her to get mad at him. And I don't know whose side the movie wants me to be on because she has a point about this stranger in her bedroom but the movie has taken such pains to make him not lascivious at all. So he's the big designer they need to keep happy and he tears up her invitation to the fashion show. Hijinks and shenanigans, she sneaks into the show and gets caught. She's about to leave but throws a parting shot about his kindness and he takes her to the window he has overlooking the salon and let's her do her job as a buyer, teaching her some tricks along the way. She's completely enamored of him and gets jealous when he makes plans with another woman on the phone and writes down where he's going. Then that night she calls up the boss' son's friend and makes him take her to all those places so she can stalk Louis Jordan. She makes eye contact with him at each place until she dances for him (seriously, he's having dinner in a box overlooking the dance floor). And then they go off and he shows her some of Paris and they are drinking wine by the river and she's talking about being inebriated. Now I can't remember if he kisses her and she gets upset or he kisses her and then talks about a plan one way or the other that doesn't involve marriage. And she's all, 'what kind of girl do you think I am,' 'what would ever give you the idea' etc. And he accuses her of following him from cafe to cafe and only wanting to pretend at a relationship. Almost romance, almost love, almost sex I think is what he says. And she slaps him (I think?) and drives off in his Rolls Royce.

 

And then more stuff that continued to muddle whatever message they were going for including her getting very drunk with the sleazy best friend and trying to seduce him only for him to suddenly gain a conscience and put her to bed.

Edited September 7, 2015 by aradia22

[Milburn Stone]

Best as I understand your synopsis, could it be that the movie was a fairly typical-for-the-mid-60s story of a woman's conflict between her sexual urges and "maintaining her virtue"? I.e., that it was an intentional (if not exactly terrific) sex comedy predicated on that conflict, rather than confused itself?

[Julia]

Best as I understand your synopsis, could it be that the movie was a fairly typical-for-the-mid-60s story of a woman's conflict between her sexual urges and "maintaining her virtue"? I.e., that it was an intentional (if not exactly terrific) sex comedy predicated on that conflict, rather than confused itself?

I've never seen it, but that plot does sound a little more like one of those dreadful Betsy Drake tries to get a ring out of Cary Grant movies from the fifties than a film made eight years after Love in the Afternoon. Even in Bye Bye Birdie, the idea that Ann Margaret's character didn't know she was hot for Conrad Birdie or realize what he wanted from her was played for laughs. I think I would have been confused too.

[Milburn Stone]

I've never seen it, but that plot does sound a little more like one of those dreadful Betsy Drake tries to get a ring out of Cary Grant movies from the fifties than a film made eight years after Love in the Afternoon. Even in Bye Bye Birdie, the idea that Ann Margaret's character didn't know she was hot for Conrad Birdie or realize what he wanted from her was played for laughs. I think I would have been confused too.

 

It does sound like Betsy Drake--but it also has the ring (no pun intended) of a Doris Day sex comedy circa 1959-1962--making Made in Paris just a touch dated from the sound of it, but not so much that it exists in a time warp.

[mariah23]

Variety is reporting that Martin Milner has died at age 83.

[Milburn Stone]

Damn. I catch an old Route 66 on ME-TV every now and then. What made compelling television in 1960 does not, for whatever reason, make for compelling television today--no matter how much you expect that it might. Nevertheless, his and George Maharis' performances remain iconic.

[Crisopera]

I was watching Going Hollywood (1933), starring Marion Davies toward the end of her career, and Bing Crosby at the beginning of his.  (Apparently, William Randolph Hearst, who produced the movie for Davies, didn't like the way Crosby sang, but was persuaded to cast him anyway.)  Goodness, this is a weird one.  Davies, who really did not dance well, is cast as a Ruby Keeler-type character, but in Hollywood, not Broadway (and is featured tapping clumsily).  Crosby sings "Temptation," drunk in a bar, with variously gendered couples fox-trotting by. There's a guy who does a  (would-be) comedy routine about various types of snoring (really).  There's a trio who does imitations of radio personalities. The title number is done with a cast of thousands in a massive Grand Central Station set.  But the really odd number is the finale - a reprise of "Our Big Love Scene" where the chorus seems to be costumed for a Chinese-type number - but when Davies enters, she appears to be wearing a modernized version of a costume for Catherine the Great (big sparkly skirt, white fur trim and hat).  Completely baffling.  Patsy Kelly's pretty funny, though.  And it was directed by Raoul Walsh!  And written by Donald Ogden Stewart!  Those 5PM on-set martinis that Davies insisted on must have been very, very strong.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Crisopera