TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[voiceover]

Praising Phillip Alford (Jem in "...Mockingbird"), who turned in one of the most natural child performances on film. And he LOOKS like he could grow up to be Gregory Peck. I love everything about him in this role.

And yet...

Peck's voice and manner when he runs from the house yelling, "Scout! Scout?!"

100% of the time = I burst into tears.

eta: Apologies if I've written the same post every time this screens...

Edited April 6, 2016 by voiceover

[Julia]

I'm reading From Caligari to Hitler to get ready for the series (April 13, 20 and 27). I don't know of anyone today making movies as overwhelming as Pandora's Box, and Caligari is still ahead of the wave, JMO.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Julia

[bluepiano]

Praising Phillip Alford (Jem in "...Mockingbird"), who turned in one of the most natural child performances on film. And he LOOKS like he could grow up to be Gregory Peck. I love everything about him in this role.

And yet...

Peck's voice and manner when he runs from the house yelling, "Scout! Scout?!"

100% of the time = I burst into tears....

 

Mary Badham is wonderful also. One of my favorite moments is when she points to Boo Radley, sitting in darkness in the corner, and says "Hey Boo." The way she delivers all her lines is just perfect. Very natural, as you said about Philip Alford. That whole scene is great, and what gets me every time is when Atticus thanks Boo for saving his children.

[Milburn Stone]

As a followup...I never heard back from TCM about the "skip framing" issue that was occurring with their movies when watching the channel on DirecTV. However...the skip-framing stopped a few days after that email, and hasn't returned. I'm going with the hypothesis that whoever received that email sent it up the chain, and somebody at the channel fixed the problem or made sure that DirecTV fixed it, even though they didn't reply. Yeah, that's the ticket...

[Crisopera]

I finally made it through the entire Second Chorus (1940), because I've seen almost every movie Fred Astaire ever made and had never been able to sit through this.  Not really worth the effort.  The songs for Astaire are sparse and genuinely unmemorable (although the Artie Shaw numbers are great) and the script is terrible, involving Fred and Burgess Meredith as the world's oldest college students, and Paulette Goddard as a Miss Fix-It secretary.  (She does a number with Fred, "I Ain't Hep to That Step", which only makes one understand why she didn't make any other musicals.)  So, while I'm glad I checked off another Astaire movie, it's generally urgh.

 

PS - I also love You Must Remember This - although the narrator is a little too fond of her own acting talent.

[Milburn Stone]

I finally made it through the entire Second Chorus (1940)...

 

Yeah. I've never made it through, but I remember thinking how surprised I was that an Astaire movie could be not only bad, not only boring, but actively unpleasant.

[Rinaldo]

Yeah. I've never made it through, but I remember thinking how surprised I was that an Astaire movie could be not only bad, not only boring, but actively unpleasant.

I haven't seen Second Chorus, but I made the discovery you mention by watching the bits of Let's Dance that are available on YouTube. Yikes.

[Julia]

Yeah. I've never made it through, but I remember thinking how surprised I was that an Astaire movie could be not only bad, not only boring, but actively unpleasant.

 

The Sky's the Limit manages that with Joan Leslie, Robert Benchley and Eric Blore in tow, so it definitely can be done. Also, Belle of New York.

[bluepiano]

Speaking of musicals, thanks to TCM for unearthing New Orleans, made in 1947 but set in NOLA in the '20s. As a historical representation of early jazz it's pretty worthless, and the love story is pure hokum, but all that is forgiven because you get to see and hear a generous amount of music performed by Louis Armstrong and such other early jazz greats as Barney Bigard and Zutty Singleton. Plus the singing of Billie Holiday, who was at the peak of her skills at that point, unlike some later film appearances she made. In her biography she wrote about hating the fact that she played a maid, though for the most part, the movie is free of stereotypes and condescending attitudes compared to many other Hollywood treatments of black jazz musicians.

Edited April 8, 2016 by bluepiano

[mariah23]

Robert Osborne just posted on Facebook-he won't be able to attend the TCM Classic Film Festival this year.

[prican58]

Ivanhoe on TCM and I find that I am able to sit through it in spite of Robert Taylor who I think is miscast. Like always. He just does nothing for me once he stepped into the 1940's. Before that I could easily watch him because he was so damn beautiful.

 

Then the next film stars that other dead wood, Stewart Granger.  I really dislike him. He comes of as so arrogant and full of himself and I think he was like that IRL. Besides the good looks, what did Jean Simmons ever see in him?  

 

Green Fire. Never heard of it. I am going to try it because Paul Douglas is in it. He is always good. Not a Grace Kelly fan even though she apparently disliked the conceited Granger as well. I do find Granger's Spanish to be pretty fair but find it funny that a film based in Colombia has extras with distinct Mexican accents. I know why that is but it just sounds odd.

 

 

All this as a prelude to To Have and Have Not. No issues with this casting, to be sure.

Edited April 10, 2016 by prican58

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Ivanhoe on TCM and I find that I am able to sit through it in spite of Robert Taylor

I avoided this one for years for pretty much just that reason - why couldn't they just have cast Errol Flynn in the obvious Errol Flynn role, given that he was still young enough to do it in 1952?  The first time I actually sat through the whole thing was when we showed it as part of the free movie program at the library some years ago and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it.  One of the few films we ever showed that had the audience literally cheering at the end.

Edited April 10, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[prican58]

Let's face it, ratgirl, George Sanders is the real reason to watch this film. I just have to accept Taylor for what he was... a Movie Star who rarely shined in my eyes. I actually would have preferred Granger play the role because though I don't care much for him he had better screen presence than Taylor.

 

I will confess that I watched Green Fire and wasn't too disappointed. It is not a genre I like in particular but it was alright. Granger and Kelly were ok. Douglas was fine.

[elle]

 

Ivanhoe on TCM and I find that I am able to sit through it in spite of Robert Taylor

Beautiful movie!  I don't mind Robert, somehow it seems someone flashier, for lack of a better word, would not fit as well in this version.

 

It is the other Taylor with whom I have problems.  The scene were she sneaks in to RT's room, dressed in "men's clothes" - Those clothes couldn't have been any tighter if there were painted on her.

 

 

Let's face it, ratgirl, George Sanders is the real reason to watch this film

How that man can make even the most creepy villain sympathetic is a testament to his talent.  One can actually feel sorry for Gisbourne even when wishing him to loose the contest.

[prican58]

elle, I saw an episode of the old Batman tv series (POW!)  where Sanders played Mr Freeze...with a French accent, even! I remembered Preminger and Eli Wallach played Freeze but totally forgot about George. Needless to say, he charmed me.

 

I would love to hear eye witness accounts of folks' reaction to seeing Bacall on the screen for the first time in To Have and Have Not. I know when I first saw her when I was a teen, I nearly dropped out of my chair. 

[Rinaldo]

It is the other Taylor [in Ivanhoe] with whom I have problems.  The scene were she sneaks in to RT's room, dressed in "men's clothes" - Those clothes couldn't have been any tighter if there were painted on her.

Oh, but her utter beauty in this movie is excuse enough for anything. This was somehow the peak of her loveliness, and it's almost amusing how she pretty much wipes Joan Fontaine (herself no slouch in the looks department) off the screen.

 

I would love to hear eye witness accounts of folks' reaction to seeing Bacall on the screen for the first time in To Have and Have Not. I know when I first saw her when I was a teen, I nearly dropped out of my chair. 

I had pretty much the same reaction when I first saw it (in my early 20s in a revival movie house). I had read about it, and her in it, but that didn't prepare me for the reality. And Bacall, besides never having made a movie, or acted at all, before, was all of 19! I know there are other examples of actresses in that period making very adult film debuts at improbably young ages, but she must take the prize. (It may bear repeating that the persistent story of her singing having been dubbed by young Andy Williams seems to have been disproved for some time now -- he was indeed on call, but they decided to have Bacall sing for herself.)

 

The Slipper and the Rose is on again! I have a fatal weakness for it. Margaret Lockwood and Annette Crosbie especially (and Angela Morley's sumptuous orchestrations)... but really all of it, if I'm honest.

[Julia]

I don't know if this is apocryphal, but I read somewhere that Bacall had to choose between To Have and Have Not and an appearance as the Harper's Bazaar model in Cover Girl.

 

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Oh, but her utter beauty in this movie is excuse enough for anything. This was somehow the peak of her loveliness

I didn't mention it, but yes I'd agree.  The other movie I always think of for displaying her beauty at its most spectacular point is A Date With Judy.

Edited April 11, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[elle]

Robert Osborne just posted on Facebook-he won't be able to attend the TCM Classic Film Festival this year.

Very sad.  Was it on his page or TCM's?

 

elle, I saw an episode of the old Batman tv series (POW!)  where Sanders played Mr Freeze...with a French accent, even! I remembered Preminger and Eli Wallach played Freeze but totally forgot about George. Needless to say, he charmed me.

Whatever else people say about the show (BAM!), it introduced zillion of kids to classic movie actors having great fun and in turn what fun it was to find "The Joker" or "Mr. Freeze" in their prime.

 

I had pretty much the same reaction when I first saw it (in my early 20s in a revival movie house). I had read about it, and her in it, but that didn't prepare me for the reality. And Bacall, besides never having made a movie, or acted at all, before, was all of 19! I know there are other examples of actresses in that period making very adult film debuts at improbably young ages, but she must take the prize. (It may bear repeating that the persistent story of her singing having been dubbed by young Andy Williams seems to have been disproved for some time now -- he was indeed on call, but they decided to have Bacall sing for herself.)

Glad to hear that the story of Bacall being dubbed is finally being disproved.  Why would they use Andy Williams?

 

Bacall herself tells the story of how the much talked about move she does where she keeps her chin low, especially in the doorway scene where she first talks to Bogart.  She said that she had to do that because she was shaking so much from nerves, it was how she could stay still.  

 

 

Oh, but her utter beauty in this movie is excuse enough for anything. This was somehow the peak of her loveliness, and it's almost amusing how she pretty much wipes Joan Fontaine (herself no slouch in the looks department) off the screen.

The movie really goes out of its way to showcase both ladies, it has felt to me that it was the story about them.  I wonder if that was deliberate or an accident.  

Edited April 11, 2016 by elle

[prican58]

I think Elizabeth was at her peak beauty during A Place in The Sun (1951) which is really the same time frame as Ivanhoe, give or take. I just can't stop looking at her in this. I think it helps that Sun is a contemporary piece. She is just so royally gorgeous. That "Wow!" scene in the billiard room is grand and she looks amazing in the strapless dress. Really just stunning.

 

Personally I prefer Bergman's perfection but I do see why she, Taylor, was considered the most beautiful of movie stars.   

 

Yes, elle, as a kid watching the Batman series I didn't know most of the celebs but when I started discovering old films I was always blown away at the sight of these folks. Especially Cesar Romero.  I had no idea he was so gorgeous! 

[Rinaldo]

Glad to hear that the story of Bacall being dubbed is finally being disproved.  Why would they use Andy Williams?

It's puzzling, isn't it? It was a dubbing-happy era in the movies, when even people who could and did sing onstage were accorded voice doubles because the studios tended to accept a very narrow range of vocal timbre from their stars (some of the ladies in this fascinating montage protested that they sang perfectly well -- like Patricia Morison, later the original star of Kiss Me, Kate -- but the studios didn't care). Anyway, while Bacall's debut film was in production, they apparently lined up several women plus the 15-year-old Andy Williams (he was singing in a quartet with his brothers then, and I don't know, he may have had an androgynous-sounding voice, or one compatible with Bacall's low-pitched speaking voice) to see if any of them would work out. But in the end Bacall's individuality won the day. It didn't always work out for others: despite lessons and protests over the years, Rita Hayworth never got to sing for herself, and Natalie Wood did so only in Gypsy.

[henrysmom]

Signed on here to post this and saw Rinaldo brought up Gypsy.  Nice coincidence.

 

So what do people think of this?  I love the musical Gypsy but I'm wondering if Streisand might be a little too old for the part now.  

 

http://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Its-Her-Turn-Barbra-Streisands-GYPSY-Movie-Finally-Moving-Forward-with-New-Helmer-20160411

[Charlie Baker]

I've enjoyed her very much, but it seems a bit late for Ms. S. to play Rose.  If it in fact finally happens, there may well be some digital enhancing going on.  Here's a lengthy article on this not often exposed aspect of CGI:

http://www.vulture.com/2016/03/special-effects-c-v-r.html

[Milburn Stone]

Streisand's track record as a director is mixed, but based on her superb direction of Yentl, I'd feel more confidence in the final product if she were directing it instead of Barry Levinson. (Who has never directed a musical to my knowledge--or even has an affinity for them, for all I know.)

Edited April 12, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

Yeah, that's why I'm not feeling strongly enough to even mention Streisand's age-inappropriateness for this (there were whispers about Patti LuPone in this regard, though the more stylized stage medium protected her, and Streisand is 15 years further along). I still feel that this is going to fall through like all the other "this time it's really going to happen" announcements over the last decade. Or else be a mess for other reasons, like Levinson having no feel for musicals. So no point my getting worked up.

[elle]

 

http://www.broadwayw...Helmer-20160411

 

I was more surprised to hear that Lady Gaga and John Travolta were considered to play Louise and Herbie, respectively!

 

I don't see Streisand as being able to be brassy enough to play Mama Rose.

 

And in one of the weird coincidences that is TV and movies, I'm watching The Trouble with Angels.  This was the first time I saw the Gyspy Rose Lee.  My mom told me who she was and that mom used to watch Gypsy's talk show "way back when".  Of course, one has to mention that wonderful bit of casting her to play the dance instructoress opposite Rosalind Russell's Reverend Mother!

Edited April 13, 2016 by elle

[Padma]

Is TCM no longer part of Time Warner On Demand?  Last week the listings were sparse (3-5 on a given day). This week it isn't even listed at all. I don't see anything about it online.  Does anyone have the same thing happening or know if this change is permanent?

[PaulaO]

Looking forward to tonight's German silent films and discussions.  I took an entire semester of German cinema in college (my B.A. is in Cinema Studies, an totally worthless liberal arts degree) so I will find this interesting.  Nosferatu scared the crap out me, and will again tonight.

[ennui]

Then the next film stars that other dead wood, Stewart Granger.  I really dislike him. He comes of as so arrogant and full of himself and I think he was like that IRL. Besides the good looks, what did Jean Simmons ever see in him?

 

I like Stewart Granger. I even tracked down his autobiography. He didn't come across as arrogant at all in his book; his chapters about his ranch were actually self-deprecating and amusing. 

 

Re singing Lauren Bacall -- Andy Williams did have a great voice, and even when he was older, he had amazing range. I could see him dubbing for Lauren. It's certainly an interesting story. 

[mariah23]

Another one to add to TCM Remembers (I think)-Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach's widow, has died at the age of 90.

[sereion1]

Looking forward to tonight's German silent films and discussions.  I took an entire semester of German cinema in college (my B.A. is in Cinema Studies, an totally worthless liberal arts degree) so I will find this interesting.  Nosferatu scared the crap out me, and will again tonight.

Crap! I forgot this was on! With the exception of The Blue Angel, I hadn't seen any of the films featured last night, and I hate that I missed it!

[voiceover]

Happy coincidence: during yesterday's lecture on How to Compose an Analysis Paper, I screened a clip from Nosferatu, to complement a few other scenes of vampires. As usual, my students were all "Yeccccchhhh!" on the Schreck front. I also brought up Mark of the Vampire -- what a genius premise; what a crap film!

Speaking of "crap film"....hadn't seen The Main Event since it was in theatres. Yikes! the Jon Peters Era: not a good one for the Streisand oeuvre.

[Rinaldo]

Speaking of "crap film"....hadn't seen The Main Event since it was in theatres. 

That says it all.

 

In the 70s, I had been seeing the new Streisand films as they came out, and most had been of at least decent quality. And then the nosedive of that one.

[Milburn Stone]

In the 70s, I had been seeing the new Streisand films as they came out, and most had been of at least decent quality. And then the nosedive of that one.

 

I am blessed not to have seen The Main Event. Is it worse than Meet the Fockers or The Guilt Trip?

[Rinaldo]

Can't say. I'm not that up to date. Maybe not, except in the sense that it's a "star vehicle" for her (unlike the two newer titles, am I right?) and doesn't do the job at all well.

[Milburn Stone]

The Guilt Trip was kind of a star vehicle, in that she and Seth Rogen were the co-equal co-stars. Please don't see it. :)

[voiceover]

At least The Main Event had a rockin' title tune.

 

Bummed to hear that Robert will be unable to attend the film festival.  I confess: I was holding out (buying a pass) until I knew if he'd be there.

Any health updates?

[bmoore4026]

In watching Spartacus today, I was wondering if Crassus every appeared on best movie villains?  He is one slimy mo-fo.

 

Also, in thinking about all those slaves crucified, it made me glad I live in these times.  The smell and sight of all those unfortunate men while and after they died must have been unimaginable.  And the common Roman people couldn't remove the bodies or they'd be executed too.

 

I think very morbid things from time to time, especially during movies set in the past.

[prican58]

I watched For Me and My Gal on Friday for the first time and I liked it. Then I watched Girl Crazy which I have seen before but watching Judy in this was like the first time. In viewing it I began to think that she was about 21 then and pretty much now acting in adult roles. I watched and thought that she was actually very sexy/beautiful. Like Elizabeth Taylor? No. But I couldn't keep my eyes off her. Normally one can't stop looking at her because of that over abundance of talent she had but now I think she may have been one of the most telegenic women on screen.

 

I watched the Star of the Month promo and it just reaffirmed my feeling that Judy was the most talented force in Hollywood, perhaps ever. Stunning! For me the greatest entertainers ever were Sammy Davis Jr, James Brown (film of his act still give me chills) and Judy Garland. Of the three she is the most talented with Sammy a very close #2. She is an icon of the first order and if only she hadn't had the demons with which she struggled she might have lived as long as Sinatra and might have had a similar late life career.

 

She is mos def my very favorite movie star.

 

 

[ratgirlagogo]

 

She is mos def my very favorite movie star.

Hey, I love Mos Def also - he's so great in  The Hitchhiker's Guide.

 

Seriously I love her too, and I agree that that the more I began to really watch everything she had done, the more I began to not just admire her, but to love her.  It's so easy to see how she became a star, even from childhood.

[prican58]

Hey, I love Mos Def also - he's so great in  The Hitchhiker's Guide.

 

Seriously I love her too, and I agree that that the more I began to really watch everything she had done, the more I began to not just admire her, but to love her.  It's so easy to see how she became a star, even from childhood.

mos definitely so, ratgirl. And I did love him in Something the Lord Made, with Alan Rickman. 

 

But seriously, I wish Ken Burns would do a doc on her. Saw the Jackie Robinson doc today and can only imagine what he could do with Judy. I think she needs to be reintroduced into the current show biz era. 

[Julia]

I don't remember who it was, but in some documentary or other someone said that Judy Garland was the only one of their co-stars who you couldn't take your eyes off when she was dancing with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Not sure if that's 100% true, but there's something to it.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Julia

[prican58]

Julia, as far as I'm concerned that is a true statement. When I watch Fred and Ginger I glance at her but am riveted to him. But Judy is like a magnet.

[Crisopera]

I've always adored Judy Garland, and my respect for her only increased when I read that she could learn any routine after doing it once (even complicated numbers like "On the Atchison, Topeka, & the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls).

 

At the opposite end of the talent scale, I watched with some degree of fascination New Faces of 1937, which I had recorded because I thought it might be an early precursor of the New Faces revues of the 1950s.  But no.  Interestingly, it used the same basic plot as The Producers (man must have his show a flop because he's sold several hundred percent of said show).  Unfortunately, the producer (Jerome Cowan) takes it on the lam about halfway through the movie, taking the only interesting performance with him.  He leaves the show in the grindingly unfunny hands of a pre-nose job Milton Berle, here oddly cast as the Matthew Broderick naïve-schnook character.  I kept watching because the main stars (besides Berle, who has a genuinely endless and laughless scene with a con artist) are two big radio stars of the time, Joe Penner (a weird amalgam of Pee Wee Herman and Bert Lahr) and Parkyakarkus, who did dialect humor (his character was a truculent Greek immigrant).  Parkyakarkus actually had a couple of funny lines (he was the father of Albert Brooks), but Joe Penner was incredibly unfunny.  This led me to meditate a bit on the fact that, in many cases, humor just doesn't survive from generation to generation.  The movie is almost worth seeing for a couple of amazing tap dancers, a very young Ann Miller and a woman named Lorraine Krueger.  The rest of the acts they trotted out were less than wonderful, especially a man who did an imitation of a woman taking a bath.  Actually, it was less grossly sexist than you might think, but still strikingly unfunny.

[Mumbles]

There was an American Masters (PBS) documentary on Judy Garland a few years ago, worth checking out if you can find it.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/judy-garland-about-judy-garland-by-myself/600/

And others may disagree, I found the ABC miniseries with Judy Davis from a while back very compelling.

[Padma]

TCM On Demand is still showing "Girl Crazy". IOf course, there's basically no plot,I'm sure I've seen it before, probably several times, but this time I really enjoyed it.

 

For Judy, I was expecting her to be a wide-eyed teen with Mickey Rooney, but they're both a bit older and I enjoyed seeing her as more of a young woman, than as a girl. She's right at that transition point in this and in some of her scenes with Mickey you can feel their friendship and chemistry and as if you're getting glimpses of her more dry humor and fun real life personality (that wasn't completely the "goody two shoes" innocent she often played) are starting to come through in her acting.   Plus...she sings lots of Gershwin!

[Sharpie66]

I think a big problem with many of the old-time comedians was that you really have to see their performances live to get the full funny. I usually roll my eyes at the "humor" of vaudevillians on film, but when I saw Sugar Babies with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller in Chicago back in the mid-'80s, which was pretty much all burlesque/vaudevillian humor, I was crying I was laughing so hard, and I wasn't the only one.

[Rinaldo]

You make a good point, Sharpie66. One of the old comedians who is now virtually lost and forgotten, because he starred in only 2 movies (plus a handful of shorts and bits), is Joe Cook. By all accounts he was hypnotic and hilarious onstage, with a real physical mastery (besides juggling etc., he would build a Rube Goldberg machine onstage and then put it to use). But I know him only by hearsay, and from the fact that the musical Fine and Dandy (music by Kay Swift, and recorded a few years ago by PS Classics) was written for him.

[prican58]

Sharpie66, in the words of Larry The Cable Guy "I don't care who you are. That's funny?" I love vaudeville humor which is why I have a soft spot for that stuff.

 

Preaching to the choir, Padma regarding Judy in Girl Crazy. That maturity she shows here really makes her even more appealing.

 

Mumbles, I am not sure I've seen the PBS American Masters but I'm guessing yes. Once I click on the link I'll remember. Will def watch it again.

 

Crisopera, I saw Parkyakarkas in an Eddie Cantor film some time ago. The name alone is just too funny.

Edited April 18, 2016 by prican58

[Milburn Stone]

Speaking of movies that don't make sense anymore (if they ever did), I DVR'ed and watched Love is Better Than Ever, starring Larry Parks and Elizabeth Taylor, directed by Stanley Donen. The only reason to watch it is simply to stare at Taylor. That's almost enough! The movie basically asks the question, "In what alternate universe was Larry Parks thought to carry enough weight as a rom-com leading man that he could adequately counterbalance Taylor?" Donen, meanwhile, doesn't do whatever you might hope he'd do to salvage things.