TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[elle]

One of the more annoying movie things of recent years was with the remake of Charade ten or so years ago - 

Even now friends know not to bring up this remake, or the general topic of remakes of classic movies, or I will go completely non-linear aka ballistic on the topic. ;0)

Edited November 8, 2015 by elle

[Rinaldo]

Fortunately that movie is as forgotten as it should be. It's as if it never happened. 

 

Even more fortunately, the threatened remake of another Stanley Donen gem, Two for the Road, never happened after all.

[CMH1981]

It was so interesting to see Norma Rae on the Essentials tonight where the star, Sally Field is the current co-host.  I loved that it was Robert Osborne and others who deem this film as an Essential to Field's somewhat duress.  I do find it interesting that some stars refuse to watch their films, like Sally.  I've heard stories where at some of the red carpet events some stars will walk press line but when it comes to the actual viewing of their film, they leave so they don't have to watch their own performance, which to be honest I would probably do the same.

 

When Sally talked about how the director fought for her based off of her performance in the tv-movie Sybil, I was really hoping they might discuss that tv-movie a little more, Sally's performance and would have loved to have TCM air that film after Norma Rae.  I would love to have Robert and Sally have a 30 min session discussing her career b/c you could tell she wanted to talk about it, but was struggling to come up w/ the right words/phrases.  I didn't know she struggled so hard to make the transition from tv comedies to film.  To think if it wasn't for Sybil showing her range we might never have gotten some of her great work.

[Julia]

One of the more annoying movie things of recent years was with the remake of Charade ten or so years ago - well , first, that they would remake a classic, but even more that the POSTER for the remake gave away one of the crucial surprises in the film 

that the rare stamps were the valuable inheritance - the poster had Thandie Newton standing in a hail of postal stamps!

 The poster!

I think Jonathan Demme was a terrible fit for that, and I have no idea what anyone was thinking replacing Cary Grant with Mark Wahlberg (who maybe should have been allowed to remake The Postman Always Rings Twice, or maybe not). But I thought Thandie Newton could have done a pretty good job, given, say, the Coen brothers and George Clooney to work wih.

[prican58]

Though not as intensely as elle, I hate remakes. Did we have to have 2 remakes of KIng Kong? The Shop Around the Corner (tho' I will say that In the Good Old Summertime and Sleepless in Seattle were not awful)? Charade is a film that should really be elevated higher in the Classic atmosphere. Hepburn at the top of her game and Cary showing that he could never be anything but at the top of his.

 

Re Sally Field, when I watch Gidget episodes (love that show) I see clearly that she was a good actress. I suppose it was partly due to the fact that she was a California kid and could play Gidget with the ease and playfulness the character needed. The Flying Nun is another story as the premise is so silly (my main reason for watching it as a kid was because it supposedly took place in Puerto Rico.)

 

I remember reading that Madeline Sherwood who played the Rev Mother was very involved in acting at the grass roots level and was an acting teacher. She apparently told Sally that if she wanted to be a serious actor she had to move away from the fluff and get busy. I seem to recall that after Nun, SF kind of disappeared from tv and I guess the consensus was that she wasn't a good actress and she just faded. Then she shows up in Sybil and the walls come tumbling down. Wow, she really can act!

 

Sybil changed her professional life.   

[Rinaldo]

Though not as intensely as elle, I hate remakes. Did we have to have 2 remakes of KIng Kong? The Shop Around the Corner (tho' I will say that In the Good Old Summertime and Sleepless in Seattle were not awful)? 

I'm sure this was just a slip of the mind+fingers such as I often make myself, but the second remake of The Shop Around the Corner was You've Got Mail.

 

I guess in this case I'm more indulgent. The premise of two coworkers who bicker in person and don't realize they've been carrying on a long-distance romance is so fertile, it's been adaptable to many times and places, and I see no reason why it shouldn't continue to be -- it's almost an archetype like Faust or the star-crossed lovers, rather than a specific story belonging to somebody. (I'll still be critical, of course, if a new version isn't well done.) There's a wonderful stage musical version set in Budapest like the first movie and the source play, called She Loves Me, by Bock & Harnick (the Fiddler writers). It's getting a big Broadway revival this spring, and I can't wait.

 

Also with King Kong: as a movie idea, it's so basic that it lends itself to reimagining in different social evolutions. (I thought the mid-70s version was a whole lot of fun, in fact.)

 

The regrettable instances, in my opinion, are films conceived for the medium that were near-perfect embodiments of their intentions the first time, with all the right elements, so why burden everybody with something inevitably lesser? Charade is a handy example. So is Casablanca.

[NewDigs]

Psycho. The rumored Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Oh, don't get me started but, is the industry so bereft of ideas they need to constantly return to the well?

And how about remaking something that kinda' sucked but the story and characters held promise?

[Bastet]

I've heard stories where at some of the red carpet events some stars will walk press line but when it comes to the actual viewing of their film, they leave so they don't have to watch their own performance, which to be honest I would probably do the same.

 

That's more common than not. 

 

If anyone ever brings the Thin Man remake to fruition (Johnny Depp was shopping the idea around several years back), I will grab my pitchfork and torch and head for the relevant studio.  I'm not opposed to remakes in general.  I am, however, opposed to certain films being remade.  That's at the top of the list.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

And how about remaking something that kinda' sucked but the story and characters held promise?

Yes, that's always a better idea.  Ocean's Eleven being a good example of that, and of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

 

But I thought Thandie Newton could have done a pretty good job, given, say, the Coen brothers and George Clooney to work wih.

Especially since the Coen brothers would have made an entirely different movie. With similar characters perhaps.

Edited November 8, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[prican58]

Essential to Field's somewhat duress.  I do find it interesting that some stars refuse to watch their films, like Sally.

 

I remember on the old Mike Douglas talk show, he had George Raft on and he said he had never seen any of his movies. Mike was shocked and GR just said he didn't like to watch himself. So it's got to be an actor-y thing. 

[Rinaldo]

William Goldman famously said something like "Sure, remake Sabrina if you had Julia Ormond the first time and then 40 years later Audrey Hepburn comes along. But not the other way around."

 

I agree about the positive value of remaking something that didn't work the first time, but had unrealized promise. For instance, aside from Charade, Peter Stone wrote several other entertainments in the 1960s that aren't as well remembered and perhaps the elements weren't quite right. How about someone taking a go at Mirage, Arabesque, or Jigsaw?

[Julia]

If anyone ever brings the Thin Man remake to fruition (Johnny Depp was shopping the idea around several years back), I will grab my pitchfork and torch and head for the relevant studio.  I'm not opposed to remakes in general.  I am, however, opposed to certain films being remade.  That's at the top of the list.

 

If it wasn't a straight remake but more of an hommage, I'd be interested to see where he could go with that with the right leading lady. I'm just deathly tired of television writers squishing all the sparkle out of people who have chemistry together because otherwise they might become romantically involved, and marblegarpMoonlightingcursebrgleftagn. Leaden romances are not the inevitable result of natural law, they're a sign of lack of skill.

 

Naturally, if Helena Bonham Carter was involved I'd chip in on the pitch for your torch.

 

Yes, that's always a better idea.  Ocean's Eleven being a good example of that, and of course Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

<smallvoice>I liked the Buffy movie better</smallvoice>

Edited November 8, 2015 by Julia

[Milburn Stone]

For instance, aside from Charade, Peter Stone wrote several other entertainments in the 1960s that aren't as well remembered and perhaps the elements weren't quite right. How about someone taking a go at Mirage, Arabesque, or Jigsaw?

 

Don't think I've ever seen or heard of Jigsaw. Will have to look it up.

 

As for Mirage, its first half was pretty intriguing--before it turned into Spellbound!

[elle]

 

<smallvoice>I liked the Buffy movie better</smallvoice>

So did I :0) (/normal voice)

 

Surprisingly, I did like the remake of Sabrina.  Yes, friends were aghast.  My argument was that while Audrey Hepburn will always be "Sabrina" for me, the Julia Ormond/Harrison Ford story had the better plot.  A rare case where the story was updated just enough for the times without losing the main story.  (I have often wished that William Holden had the Linus role and they got someone younger for David)

 

I'm just deathly tired of television writers squishing all the sparkle out of people who have chemistry together because otherwise they might become romantically involved, and marblegarpMoonlightingcursebrgleftagn. Leaden romances are not the inevitable result of natural law, they're a sign of lack of skill.

(/notmovies) Urk! Agreed.  And, tptb should know when to end a series long before a shark sighting is reported.

 

But I thought Thandie Newton could have done a pretty good job, given, say, the Coen brothers and George Clooney to work wih.

Especially since the Coen brothers would have made an entirely different movie. With similar characters perhaps.

Thandie Newton, no.  mmv!

 

Clooney has hinted of signs of reminding me of Cary Grant every now and then, especially in the Ocean movies.  I am curious to see what he and the Coen bros. have done in their new movie "Hail, Caesar".

 

 

If anyone ever brings the Thin Man remake to fruition (Johnny Depp was shopping the idea around several years back), I will grab my pitchfork and torch and head for the relevant studio

If that should ever happen, sign me up, I'll bring my own torch!

[Julia]

(/notmovies)

I know, my bad. Nick and Nora are just such an archetype for an established couple being awesome, and I'd love that to be a thing again.

[elle]

I know, my bad. Nick and Nora are just such an archetype for an established couple being awesome, and I'd love that to be a thing again.

The "code" /notmovies, was my way of acknowledging the veer off topic, not to comment on your comment.    I frequently will go chasing rabbits down holes that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

 

Such as...there was/is/will be no one like Nick and Nora Charles!*  There is a recent book series set in that time that one or more reviewer have compared the couple to N&N.  Thankfully, there are one or two reviewers who point out how they *do not* resemble N&N.

 

*Or should I say William Powell and Myrna Loy!

[Bastet]

Nick and Nora are just such an archetype for an established couple being awesome, and I'd love that to be a thing again.

 

Oh, me too.  I'd love to see something in the vein of Nick and Nora (I liked Hart to Hart, silly as it was, largely because of that).  But I do not want to see a remake, with new people playing Nick and Nora Charles.  The old TV show was a pale imitation, and inevitably so, as would be any big screen remake.  Because I don't care how much chemistry any two actors have, how talented they each are in their own right, or how well written the script is, they will not capture the absolute magic that is the original.

[Rinaldo]

I watched a movie today that seemed to me an example of a well-justified remake: True Grit. The first movie is remembered as a great vehicle for an aging John Wayne, but perhaps not much else. The book it was based on is a minor but distinctive achievement, and it was worthwhile to have a carefully crafted and cast new look at it.

[aradia22]

Google has a very nice video up for Hedy Lamarr's birthday on their homepage. I respect her accomplishments in science and engineering but I didn't think she was all that great in Ziegfeld Girl. Any recommendations that might turn me into a fan?

[ratgirlagogo]

 

The book it was based on is a minor but distinctive achievement, and it was worthwhile to have a carefully crafted and cast new look at it.

I would argue that the book it is based on (like all this author's books)  is seriously underrated.  A major achievement.  All the best dialogue in both film versions comes directly from it.  Charles Portis is a classic example of someone who never got put up for any serious literary awards because his books are funny. (Same way comedies never win Oscars.)  But not because they're not works of literature that can be taken seriously.  If Thomas Pynchon is a serious literary writer then so is Portis.  

[Milburn Stone]

Re Powell-Loy, TCM showed Love Crazy recently and I taped it. (Mainly because I wanted to see Gail Patrick, who plays "the other woman." Suffice it to say her performance made me understand her appeal to the Powell character.) Have watched about half of it. Quite witty! Of course the Powell-Loy magic is indispensable, but the writing and direction are strong.

 

Jack Carson is in it, which is always a plus. Was he not under contract to Warners yet? Or was this a loan-out?

Edited November 9, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[henrysmom]

 

And how about remaking something that kinda' sucked but the story and characters held promise?

 

Case in point: The Maltese Falcon.  Wonderful book with a great story and amazing characters.  Made into movies twice, both badly (though I do enjoy Ricardo Cortez wandering around in a smoking jacket in the 1931 version--that just screams hard boiled private investigator).  Then John Huston got his hands on it, put together a brilliant cast, and we have movie perfection.

 

 

[Sharpie66]

When I saw the Hedy Lamarr Google doodle, my first thought was, "It's Hedley!" And then I thought of her contribution to cell-phone technology. I never even thought of any of her films!

[Crisopera]

If you want to see a thoroughly awful performance, legendarily bad, try Hedy Lamarr in the hilariously awful White Cargo (1942).  She plays a dusky bad girl, Tondelayo, in light blackface, speaking Viennese-accented pidgin English.  Stunningly awful - but to be fair, NO ONE could make the character believable.  Hedy Lamarr was one of the most beautiful stone-faced stars of the Golden Age.

[Julia]

She was stunning in Algiers, but there was no there there, I think at least partly because of the script. Which I think made it a more interesting movie, because Charles Boyer's profoundly cynical character was pretty much a moth making a kamikaze run on a very, very pretty porch light. It reminded me a little bit of Pandora's Box.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Julia

[Rinaldo]

Case in point: The Maltese Falcon.  Wonderful book with a great story and amazing characters.  Made into movies twice, both badly (though I do enjoy Ricardo Cortez wandering around in a smoking jacket in the 1931 version--that just screams hard boiled private investigator).  Then John Huston got his hands on it, put together a brilliant cast, and we have movie perfection.

Perfect example. And I might add, the second-best thing about the DVD box of The Maltese Falcon is that it includes the two earlier movies. (The best thing is that it includes the film of the Gaîté-Parisienne ballet, which I had been wishing I could see for decades.)

[Inquisitionist]

I hadn't seen any of Hedy Lamarr's movies since Samson and Delilah back when I was baby-sitting as a young teenager, so I recently recorded and watched Comrade X (1940) with her and Clark Gable.  Talk about "stone-faced star."  She was painful to watch and listen to.  Thank goodness, Clark had enough vim and verve for the two of them.  Would have been nice for Eve Arden to turn up more as well.  She crackled in her too-few scenes.

[Rinaldo]

Eve Arden! She was a major figure of my childhood as Our Miss Brooks (the only comedy show my parents made a point of introducing me to, besides I Love Lucy). 20+ years later my aged grandmother (being cared for by my mother then) liked her the best of anybody on TV -- I think she had a popular commercial then -- because she always Spoke Up So Nice And Loud. And she seems to have been fully formed as a performing personality from the beginning. She makes her first entrance at the other end of a room half an hour into Cover Girl, indistinguishable in long shot, says something like "Well girls, what's happening today?" in those no-nonsense tones, and it's totally her. What a treasure.

Edited November 10, 2015 by Rinaldo

[elle]

Here is a link to the doodle and an article on Hedy Lamarr.

 

Samson and Delilah is a pretty good "sand and sandals" movie.  It has the added benefit of Angela Landsbury as Hedy's older sister and the lovely George Sanders as the bad guy.

 

Question for the group - How would you summarize The Philadelphia Story for an 11 year old girl so that her eyes don't glaze over?

 

The upper school  where my daughter attends gave a production of TPS.  We were talking about upcoming production when this was mentioned, and she asked what the play was about.  My husband looked at me and ask "well"?  My mind went blank.  I did come up with a reasonably understandable explanation (she did at least know who Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart were).  I told her that we would watch it next time it was on.  The, my husband commented that Katherine Hepburn owned the rights to the play and I had to explain that story to her.

Edited November 9, 2015 by elle

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Eve Arden!

A treasure indeed. I've always loved her too.  Smart, gorgeous, and no-nonsense.  What's not to love?

[Julia]

I love that they're showing Manhattan Melodrama. My grandma and her family moved out of what's now Alphabet City after the General Slocum fire, and everyone's more or less forgotten it.

[Bastet]

And that sequence is really well done, too. 

 

I enjoy that movie.  It's one of my favorite Clark Gable performances.  And, of course, the first pairing of Myrna Loy and William Powell.  I love the relationship between the three characters, especially how the fact Blackie and Eleanor still love each other is perfectly okay. 

[aradia22]

 

I hadn't seen any of Hedy Lamarr's movies since Samson and Delilah back when I was baby-sitting as a young teenager, so I recently recorded and watched Comrade X (1940) with her and Clark Gable.  Talk about "stone-faced star."  She was painful to watch and listen to.  Thank goodness, Clark had enough vim and verve for the two of them.  Would have been nice for Eve Arden to turn up more as well.  She crackled in her too-few scenes.

Oh that's right. I can't remember if I only saw the end of Comrade X or if I watched the whole thing. That's probably not a good thing if I did watch the whole movie.

 

Question for the group - How would you summarize The Philadelphia Story for an 11 year old girl so that her eyes don't glaze over?

It's your basic love triangle (square?) isn't it? Most preteen/teen girl movies tell me that 11-year-old girls should be all about that. And there are certainly times when those characters act pretty childish.

[Julia]

Question for the group - How would you summarize The Philadelphia Story for an 11 year old girl so that her eyes don't glaze over?

 

The upper school  where my daughter attends gave a production of TPS.  We were talking about upcoming production when this was mentioned, and she asked what the play was about.  My husband looked at me and ask "well"?  My mind went blank.  I did come up with a reasonably understandable explanation (she did at least know who Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart were).  I told her that we would watch it next time it was on.  The, my husband commented that Katherine Hepburn owned the rights to the play and I had to explain that story to her.

 

Agh, sorry, I missed this.

 

I would think this would be an easy sell for them today. Rich girl marries bad boy thinking he was going to become the rigid, serious person she wanted him to be, and divorces him when he doesn't because her father scared her by being an asshole. Then she gets engaged to a man who really is what she thought she wanted, and she discovers that your partner expecting you to be perfect isn't nearly as much fun as expecting your partner to be perfect. Also, Gawker gets invited into her wedding party for reasons. 

[elle]

Oh that's right. I can't remember if I only saw the end of Comrade X or if I watched the whole thing. That's probably not a good thing if I did watch the whole movie.

It's your basic love triangle (square?) isn't it? Most preteen/teen girl movies tell me that 11-year-old girls should be all about that. And there are certainly times when those characters act pretty childish.

Thanks for the response, you too, Julia

 

Thankfully, my daughter is not interested in those kind of movies aimed at or around her age.  Ask her what her favorite movie is and you could get anything from That Darn Cat to The Black Stallion to The Lion King...sensing a theme?  (She only just saw TLK because she was in a musical based on it)

 

The funny thing about my attempt to explain, without going into too much detail, is that we veered off into the origin of the word "paparazzi".

 

And that sequence is really well done, too. 

 

I enjoy that movie.  It's one of my favorite Clark Gable performances.  And, of course, the first pairing of Myrna Loy and William Powell.  I love the relationship between the three characters, especially how the fact Blackie and Eleanor still love each other is perfectly okay. 

Yes!  A day of early Myrna Loy movies I do not get to watch because of grumble cable.

[aradia22]

 

Also, Gawker gets invited into her wedding party for reasons.

LOL. Dying. I really need to watch that movie again.

[mariah23]

News from the celebrity deaths thread.

Betsy Drake, third wife of Cary Grant, dies at age 92.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

 

Also, Gawker gets invited into her wedding party for reasons.

LOL. Dying. I really need to watch that movie again.

I've never liked the Philadelphia Story (Katherine Hepburn is not a favorite of mine but watching the movie itself insult and humiliate her is awful) but the Gawker line is perfect.  

[Julia]

I've never liked the Philadelphia Story (Katherine Hepburn is not a favorite of mine but watching the movie itself insult and humiliate her is awful)  

 

I used to pause movies when I was watching them with the kid to explain what was totally wrong about what character X just said.

 

That happened a lot during Philadelphia Story (and The Women). 

[Bastet]

If I did that with The Women, it would be on pause so often it would take half a day to watch.

 

So much terrific dialogue in The Philadelphia Story and so much great acting from a divine cast (not just the three main players).  But there's this one, huge, underlying flaw throughout that tries to ruin the movie for me.  It doesn't - in fact, I love it - but it's aggravating.

[bluepiano]

TCM showed Evelyn Prentice today, with Powell and Loy, which came out the same year as The Thin Man, but unfortunately, it was not a witty comedy or whodunit, but a turgid melodrama about murder and infidelity (soft soaped because I think it was about the time that the Code came in). As much as I love both these two great performers, the dialogue and direction were so dated it was painful to watch.

 

Speaking of dated, right now TCM is showing Private Lives starring Norma Shearer, the November Star of the Month. She is my prime specimen in the category of major stars in their era who are now largely forgotten, because later generations just could not relate to their acting style. I mean, I know that real movie buffs remember Norma Shearer, but she is certainly way less known today than contemporaries like Katherine Hepburn and Bette Davis. And she was actually a bigger star during that era.

 

Actually, Robert Montgomery, who the male lead in Private Lives, is another actor who has was big in his time and has dated badly.

 

Anybody else have nominees in the "now largely forgotten" category?

Edited November 11, 2015 by bluepiano

[Bastet]

I have long wished Evelyn Prentice was a better script, because I'd have loved for MGM to continue to put Powell and Loy in some dramas as well as all those fun comedies.  They both turn in good performances, and Una Merkel is always a delight (plus the new-on-the-scene Rosalind Russell), but it's overblown and soapy.  And, yes, the Code definitely hindered things.

 

And as a PSA after several recent posts ... it's Katharine, not Katherine, Hepburn.  (Friends chose the spelling of their daughter's name in honor of her, and the three spend their lives annoyed by the inevitable misspelling, so it always jumps out at me.)

Edited November 11, 2015 by Bastet

[Milburn Stone]

Sometimes I hear some main title music for a thirties or forties MGM picture on TCM, and I think, "That's not bad," and the credit is for David Snell. He never gets his own title card (unlike a Waxman, also at MGM at the time)--he's always grouped among the makeup artists, the set designers, the editors, et. al.--but he was really all right! A staff composer who did respectable work, well above schlock. Kind of like Adolph Deutsch at Warners--but even less remembered today than Deutsch.

 

Some years, he did dozens of scores. He wrote the recurring main theme for the Hardy Family pictures.

 

Attention must be paid.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[Charlie Baker]

A couple other Myrna Loy items:

 

Yesterday Parnell was shown, which was a big flop, despite pairing Clark Gable and Myrna Loy.  Ms. Loy defends this movie in her memoirs, but it really is a dull misfire, considering its subject matter.  This was supposedly the movie that made Gable not want to do any more period pieces, including GWTW.  And it probably is his weakest performance.  But the script and the direction (where was the pacing and life in this thing?) didn't help him or Ms. L. 

 

This morning caught a little of something I've never seen.  Consolation Marriage has Pat O'Brien and Irene Dunne as a couple who seem to settle for each other, but actually are meant to be together.  Ms. Loy is the one O'Brien carries a torch for--and she looks really snazzy as a blonde.  I really didn't watch enough of this to give it a fair evaluation--it's 1931, pre-Code, so I don't know how racy it might be, but it seemed a little standard (and stilted, by today's standards).  but I'll probably catch up with it at some point.

[henrysmom]

 

Anybody else have nominees in the "now largely forgotten" category?

 

Oddly enough, yesterday I was thinking about this.  I had read the Vanity Fair article about Burt Reynolds and it mentioned he had been the top box office star for five years straight, and that nobody else had done that since.  And I thought that somebody back in the 1930s or 40s had done that but couldn't think of who.  Mickey Rooney or Shirley Temple?

So I went to this website https://tbmovielists.wordpress.com/quigleys-top-ten-box-office-champions-by-year/ and was more than a little shocked to see that the only other person who was the top box office star for five years straight was Bing Crosby.  Talk about "now largely forgotten".  I know he was hugely popular in his time but now, not so much.  

To me he just always seems so bland and dull.  I still kind of enjoy the Road movies, but I like Bob Hope better than Bing Crosby in them.

 

But if you want to look at forgotten stars, that list is a sad comment on the way fame fades.  Marie Dressler? Charles Farrell?  Wallace Beery?  Will Rogers?  Joe E. Brown?  All pretty much forgotten, and those five were just from 1932 alone.

Edited November 11, 2015 by henrysmom

[Julia]

To me he just always seems so bland and dull.  I still kind of enjoy the Road movies, but I like Bob Hope better than Bing Crosby in them.

 

He was surprisingly effective as a manipulative alcoholic in The Country Girl.

[Bastet]

This morning caught a little of something I've never seen.  Consolation Marriage has Pat O'Brien and Irene Dunne as a couple who seem to settle for each other, but actually are meant to be together.  Ms. Loy is the one O'Brien carries a torch for--and she looks really snazzy as a blonde.

 

Oh, dammit, I knew there was something I wanted to record this week!  I haven't seen that in a long time, and can't really remember how I felt about it, so I wanted to watch it again.  I wonder how long I'll have to wait.

 

Once was enough with Parnell, so I skipped that one.  But it did give us a great off-screen moment between Myrna Loy and Roz Russell.  Russell lived down the street from Loy, and MGM put her in several roles that Loy didn't want to do.  At a party, Russell joked that Loy would toss scripts out her front door, they'd roll down to Russell, and that's how she got her roles.  Loy quipped, "Where were you the night I rolled you Parnell?"

[Charlie Baker]

I think Crosby had more edge earlier in his career--if I understand correctly, he was closer to a jazz singer at the start and over time got more homogenized and laid back, and his popularity just grew.  Of course he retained edge in his private life. And I agree he's very good in The Country Girl.

[LuciaMia]

 

If it wasn't a straight remake but more of an hommage,

Hmmmm, well as long as they still use that wonderful striped dress Myrna Loy wears in the Christmas party scene.

***************

As an earlier poster said about those early Norma Sheara filsm. Really, really early, like her first talkies of 1929 and 30.  So many of the characters have that melodramatic tremble in their voices.  "Oooo, I can not stand to see you marry that man.ooooooo"

But by 1932, a more naturalistic style is already the norm.

Being Veterans Day, Im surprised that TCM isnt showing military-themed movies.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

 

But if you want to look at forgotten stars, that list is a sad comment on the way fame fades.  Marie Dressler? Charles Farrell?  Wallace Beery?  Will Rogers?  Joe E. Brown?  All pretty much forgotten, and those five were just from 1932 alone.

Well, WE all remember them here on this board.  But if you don't watch TCM or live in a place with some decent repertory houses I don't know how you would know anything much about them. And on top of that,  to the non-classic movie fan Will Rogers, like Jean Hersholt, has this baffling afterlife - who is this Will Rogers guy and why is there a beach and a state park and an airport and hospitals and schools named after him?  Of course he was famous before he ever made a movie - but people are even less likely to know about vaudeville and radio and newspaper columnists from back then.  Even when children have to pick a famous Native American to write school reports about, I'd bet few pick him.

 

 

Being Veterans Day, Im surprised that TCM isnt showing military-themed movies.

This surprised me too.  I was expecting a bunch of World War One movies.

Edited November 11, 2015 by ratgirlagogo