TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Gemma Violet]

I'm late to the party but I just wanted to say that Breaking Away is one of my favorite movies of the '70s.  Nice to see it again.

And I love The Heiress.  I discovered it years ago after seeing Carol Burnett's sketch on it where Roddy McDowell played Morris Townsend. Hilarious.  

[Rinaldo]

I finally was able to set aside time to watch my recorded The Heiress. What a fine piece of work all around. I saw the acclaimed Broadway production in the 1990s, and it was indeed superb, with Cherry Jones, Frances Sternhagen, Donald Moffat, and Jon Tenney creating something subtle and stirring. The movie had extra ammunition at its disposal, with Ralph Richardson, Montgomery Clift, and especially Olivia de Havilland (seldom was an acting Academy Award so richly deserved). Just beautiful.

[Willowsmom]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

I finally was able to set aside time to watch my recorded The Heiress. What a fine piece of work all around. I saw the acclaimed Broadway production in the 1990s, and it was indeed superb, with Cherry Jones, Frances Sternhagen, Donald Moffat, and Jon Tenney creating something subtle and stirring. The movie had extra ammunition at its disposal, with Ralph Richardson, Montgomery Clift, and especially Olivia de Havilland (seldom was an acting Academy Award so richly deserved). Just beautiful.

 

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

I finally was able to set aside time to watch my recorded The Heiress. What a fine piece of work all around. I saw the acclaimed Broadway production in the 1990s, and it was indeed superb, with Cherry Jones, Frances Sternhagen, Donald Moffat, and Jon Tenney creating something subtle and stirring. The movie had extra ammunition at its disposal, with Ralph Richardson, Montgomery Clift, and especially Olivia de Havilland (seldom was an acting Academy Award so richly deserved). Just beautiful.

And Marion Davies.

Just watched Picnic at Hanging Rock. I'm so confused.

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, Willowsmom said:

And Marion Davies.

Speaking of feeling confused. What does Marion Davies have to do with The Heiress? Was Miriam Hopkins intended? 

[Willowsmom]

24 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

Speaking of feeling confused. What does Marion Davies have to do with The Heiress? Was Miriam Hopkins intended? 

Sorry, you''re right. Told you I was confused.

[Rinaldo]

No problem. I meant, BTW, that I was the one feeling confused -- maybe there was a story connected with its making that I didn't know, which often happens.

One of the details that I meant to mention connects with one that was discussed early in this thread: that this is one of the rare instances of Hollywood faithfully reproducing a hairstyle from another era even though it was unattractive by current standards: Catherine's flat bands across the front, pulled severely to both sides. And of course they were tolerated because she was supposed to be shy and unable to present herself attractively, even though that style was in reality the height of fashion in the mid-19th century.

A word for William Wyler, seldom mentioned among the "great directors" because (I'm guessing) he worked so completely within the studio system and had no "signature" that makes him identifiable. But my word, what a variety of good movies he gave us, and how many great acting performances he made possible: Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, The Westerner, The Letter, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Heiress, Roman Holiday, Friendly Persuasion, The Big Country, Ben-Hur, Funny Girl are just a sampling.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Milburn Stone]

17 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

But my word, what a variety of good movies he gave us, and how many great acting performances he made possible: Jezebel, Wuthering Heights, The Westerner, The Letter, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Heiress, Roman Holiday, Friendly Persuasion, The Big Country, Ben-Hur, Funny Girl are just a sampling.

Word. For my money, Peter O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn were never better than in How to Steal a Million.

[Rinaldo]

And Laurence Olivier for the rest of his life credited Wyler with unlocking the secrets of acting for the camera for him. And indeed, one can see a real difference in Olivier's screen work pre- and post- Wuthering Heights. 

[Crisopera]

Wyler is absolutely one of my favorite directors, and Dodsworth is one of my favorite movies ever.  Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, and Mary Astor are all wonderful.  He certainly had an amazing ability to get great performances out of apparently anybody - Rinaldo, you are so right when you note the terrific difference in Olivier pre- and post-Wuthering Heights.  Before, he was still a shallow (if intense and gorgeous) ingénue, and after, he was Olivier.

PS - I watched The Beggar's Opera over the weekend, and what a blast!  I had forgotten how good it was.  I noticed in imdb that there's a 1983 British TV version with Roger Daltrey as MacHeath. He's missable, but I'd love to see it, just for Patricia Routledge as Mrs. Peachum.  She must have been fabulous.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Wyler was a fantastic, one of the greatest, really. I can't think of any bad films he directed, and the only one I personally dislike is Friendly Persuasion (way too long and preachy). I think Jezebel and Funny Girl are kind of overrated, but by no means bad. 

It's way too hard for me to pick a favorite Wyler film. The Heiress? A masterful character study, a textbook example of flawless film language, and superbly acted. Dodsworth? One of the most grown-up films ever made; in other words, it would never fly in mainstream Hollywood today. Ben-Hur? A classic that actually lives up the hype (don't get me started on the chariot race!). The Big Country? Tied with High Noon as my favorite anti-Western. Roman Holiday? Hey, it launched Audrey Hepburn's career, not a bad thing! These Three and The Children's Hour? Both great (I personally prefer the former to the latter). Mrs. Miniver? Modern critics sneer at it, but I think it has its charms, and its slice-of-life tone is unusual for the era. How to Steal a Million? Woefully underrated (not to mention I can't make up my mind who's prettier, Audrey or Peter O'Toole).

Edited July 18, 2016 by Wiendish Fitch

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, Crisopera said:

PS - I watched The Beggar's Opera over the weekend, and what a blast!  I had forgotten how good it was.  I noticed in imdb that there's a 1983 British TV version with Roger Daltrey as MacHeath. He's missable, but I'd love to see it, just for Patricia Routledge as Mrs. Peachum.  She must have been fabulous.

That BBC version is indeed a very mixed bag, and Daltrey is not one of the good parts (as I recall). But Routledge certainly is -- musicals are really her home territory, and she's immense as Mrs. Peachum. Bob Hoskins's brief appearances as the Beggar are great too. But it doesn't really work. Jonathan Miller, to my mind, is a hugely overrated director, who can miss out on some pretty basic necessities like clarity and consistency.

In general, my favorite video Beggar's Opera (leaving aside the 1953 film, which is sui generis and unrepeatable -- I hope we can talk about it more) is one that I never knew existed till a few years ago: a 2009 DVD publication of a 1963 B&W telecast of Benjamin Britten's realization, with a lively cast of opera people including Janet Baker, Heather Harper, and Kenneth MacKellar, all excellent here. I'm biased, I admit -- Britten is my favorite composer. But I really get a kick out of this one.

[Crisopera]

That sounds wonderful and it's on YouTube.  Whoohoo!  I know what I'll be watching this weekend!

I love Britten too - the female quartet from Peter Grimes is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Crisopera

[bmoore4026]

On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 7:22 PM, Willowsmom said:

 

Just watched Picnic at Hanging Rock. I'm so confused.

Yeah, the big twist at the end of the novel involves understanding the Aboriginal legend of The Dream Time (more or less The Twilight Zone).  Since a lot of people don't know and have never heard of The Dream Time, this part was smartly left out of the film.

[Willowsmom]

What I read indicated that there was another chapter that was cut before publication that included a time warp and/or space aliens.

[Sharpie66]

I've been debating about watching Picnic at Hanging Rock, just because I'm such a Peter Weir fan. I think that Witness is one of the best films of the 1980s, and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is equally fascinating. I wonder if The Way Back, the only film he's directed since M&C, is any good.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Sharpie66

[Rinaldo]

Do we have any more to say about that Brook/Olivier Beggar's Opera before it fades out of memory entirely?

[Inquisitionist]

Sharpie66, PaHR is certainly atmospheric.  Worth a look as an early work of Weir's, I think.  I agree with you about Witness.

[Crisopera]

Speaking of The Beggar's Opera, I've always enjoyed (and remembered, although I thought it was Pauline Kael until I looked it up) Dwight MacDonald's line about Hugh Griffith:

Quote

It is hard to think of a role for which Mr. Griffith would not be Too Much, with his piercing glare, his insanely dominant nose, his beetling brows and cavernous mouth, his overripe diction.  Perhaps God. 

That really applies more to the latter Griffith - MacDonald was reviewing Tom Jones (1963).

 

About Peter Weir - I really thought that Master & Commander should have won Best Picture in its year, instead of Chicago.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Crisopera

[Rinaldo]

I finished my re-viewing of Breaking Away tonight. Oh, how I love it. My vision was getting a little blurry at the end. Not because the cutters won the race (the very first time I saw it, I wasn't at all sure they would; after all Rocky hadn't won and that was just a couple of years earlier), but for all that it had to say about people and love and dreams and family. None of it heavy-handed or preachy. Plus Bloomington is a big part of my life and I now want to go back for a week. Plus Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie are just beyond-words lovely as the parents (parts that could have been played in any number of exaggerated ways, but are just so true, and funny at the same time). Bravo tutti.

[ratgirlagogo]

When Paul Dooley says :" I was proud of my work. And the buildings went up. When they were finished the damnedest thing happened. It was like the buildings were too good for us. Nobody told us that. It just felt uncomfortable, that's all."

That's the whole movie to me.  It choked me up when I first saw it in 1979 and it still does today.  Maybe because even after the rise and fall of five or six "New Economies" that dynamic hasn't changed at all, other than perhaps drifting overseas a bit.  Such a wonderful movie.

Edited July 20, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[ratgirlagogo]

Garry Marshall has died.  I can't think of a film credit for him that was something I liked but he  did make a lot of films - I think his real metier was TV.    He was incredibly funny on Murphy Brown playing the kind of producer he must have dealt with every day as a TV writer.

[Rinaldo]

Ratgirlagogo, and then his son says "I don't care, Dad," and Dooley says simply, "*I* care."

You may be right about TV being Garry Marshall's medium, though I'll speak up mildly in favor of Frankie and Johnny, which I remember liking a lot at the time (in spite of what one can justly say about the casting -- there's a great story about that). One minor quirk about his movies is that Hector Elizondo was invariably in the cast.

[Crisopera]

Looking at Garry Marshall's directing credits, I would say that Frankie and Johnny is probably his best movie (for my tastes anyway).  I am probably the only person on the planet who hasn't seen Pretty Woman, and the other two that people seem to be nuts about,  Overboard and Beaches, I couldn't stand.  Frankly, I think he was much better as an actor than director.

I have Breaking Away on the DVR to watch over the weekend - between that and the 1963 Beggar's Opera, looks like I will be having a good time!

[Milburn Stone]

17 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

You may be right about TV being Garry Marshall's medium, though I'll speak up mildly in favor of Frankie and Johnny...

It's easy to dismiss Pretty Woman now (for a whole passel of valid reasons), but at the time, we--along with the rest of the Western World--enjoyed it. Hard to believe now, but the comedy seemed pretty fresh at the time. Probably in no small part because of the charm of Julia Roberts (which was still years away from wearing out its welcome), but also because of Marshall's touch.

[ratgirlagogo]

I forgot about Frankie and Johnny.  Although even that one has that weird Hollywood dynamic where the girl falls for the guy because of his almost ominous persistance in pursuing her.  And Pretty Woman!   god how I have always hated hated hated that movie!  And how many women have told me it's their favorite romantic comedy!  Gah.

Edited July 20, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Charlie Baker]

My favorite TV works of Garry Marshall's were The Odd Couple and The Dick Van Dyke Show.  And an early movie of his of which I have nice memories (Haven't seen it in years) was The Flamingo Kid.

[Rinaldo]

Garry Marshall and Jerry Belson wrote 18 terrific scripts for The Dick Van Dyke Show. And they deserve great credit for that. But that was the extent of Marshall's association with it; he never produced or directed any of it. (My point is that I have trouble thinking of it as "his," though I would certainly concur that of any title he was associated with, it's by far the one I like the best.)

[NewDigs]

On July 19, 2016 at 11:58 PM, Rinaldo said:

I finished my re-viewing of Breaking Away tonight. Oh, how I love it. My vision was getting a little blurry at the end. Not because the cutters won the race (the very first time I saw it, I wasn't at all sure they would; after all Rocky hadn't won and that was just a couple of years earlier), but for all that it had to say about people and love and dreams and family. None of it heavy-handed or preachy. Plus Bloomington is a big part of my life and I now want to go back for a week. Plus Paul Dooley and Barbara Barrie are just beyond-words lovely as the parents (parts that could have been played in any number of exaggerated ways, but are just so true, and funny at the same time). Bravo tutti.

And the very end. Paul Dooley has taken up bicycling and Dennis "Dave" Christopher has settled into college and they bicycle in opposite directions past each other.

Spoiler

And Dave greets his dad with, Bonjour, Papa!  

The freeze-frame of Dooley's face is priceless.

So perfect.

I need a rewatch.

 

The Dick van Dyke Show has to be my fave Marshall series. Sophisticated and so witty. And Mork and Mindy will always hold a special place. 

RIP Garry Marshall

Edited July 21, 2016 by NewDigs
Added to spoiler. It Was needed.

[Sharpie66]

I haven't thought about The Flamingo Kid in years--thanks for the reminder! That was a really good movie, IIRC. 

[Padma]

I've always enjoyed "Gore Vidal's The Best Man" (shown a few days ago) and think it holds up very well 50 years later (today they could make it a Republican rather than Democratic primary and substitute  "terrorists" for "Communists/Mafia" and leave the rest the same. It would still work very well.)  I think it's my favorite Cliff Robertson performance. In the role inspired by Nixon, he does a good job getting away from the good-natured boyishness to show the way a politician could have that dark, ruthless side that he successfully keeps hidden from the public (but, at times, can also successfully exploit to win over voters.

But the performance that always jumps out most to me is Lee Tracy's as the president (modeled on Truman). I don't know that he's done anything comparable--his career seems somewhat lackluster--but that was a great performance.       

Edited July 23, 2016 by Padma

[Crisopera]

Oh, boy - If you want to see Lee Tracy at his peak, take a look at his pre-Code movies, especially Blessed Event and The Half-Naked Truth (he's also terrific in Dinner at Eight, but it's a smaller part).  He was the hardest-boiled, fastest-talking actor EVER.  A blast.  (Apparently, he was on the stardom-track at MGM, but during the filming of Viva Villa!, he got completely plastered and pissed off the balcony of his hotel onto a parade of the Mexican army passing underneath, which killed his career momentum stone dead.)

[Rinaldo]

A self-indulgent callback to the William Wyler discussion of a week ago. One of my idle amusements, because I have no life, is to update my tally each year of who DIRECTED the Oscar-winning acting performances -- essentially (acknowledging that lots of elements go into a good movie performance, awards don't equate to highest quality, and all that) which directors seem to encourage memorable acting.

Anyway, William Wyler has the longest list, and the performances are of high quality too: Davis & Bainter (Jezebel), Brennan (The Westerner), Garson & Wright (Mrs. Miniver), March & Russell (Best Years...), De Havilland, Hepburn (Roman Holiday), Ives (Big Country), Heston & Griffith (Ben-Hur), Streisand (Funny Girl).

Next longest is Elia Kazan with 9 in a short period: James Dunn (Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Celeste Holm (Gentleman's Agreement), Leigh/Hunter/Malden (Streetcar), Quinn (Viva Zapata!), Brando/Saint (Waterfront), and Van Fleet (East of Eden).

After that, Woody Allen with 7 over a longer time: Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest (Hannah, Bullets over Bway), Michael Caine (Hannah), Mira Sorvino, Penelope Cruz, Cate Blanchett. Other scores available on request. :)

Edited July 25, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Padma]

10 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Oh, boy - If you want to see Lee Tracy at his peak, take a look at his pre-Code movies, especially Blessed Event and The Half-Naked Truth (he's also terrific in Dinner at Eight, but it's a smaller part).  He was the hardest-boiled, fastest-talking actor EVER.  A blast.  (Apparently, he was on the stardom-track at MGM, but during the filming of Viva Villa!, he got completely plastered and pissed off the balcony of his hotel onto a parade of the Mexican army passing underneath, which killed his career momentum stone dead.)

Thanks for the tips. I read (Wikipedia) that he played Hildy Johnson in the stage "The Front Page" so that style would make sense.  (The peeing story is ... colorful... though apparently some of the crew--per Wikipedia at least--disputed it. Still, it sounds plausible to me.)

It would be interesting to see those early performances and how his The Best Man role still had those origins, while being different from his usual style. As Art Hofstedder his delivery is crisp and cool, but with the Truman rhythm, not a fast talker.  Maybe I'll be even -more- impressed after seeing how he succeeded in both kinds of parts.

Quote

 ...update my tally each year of who DIRECTED the Oscar-winning acting performances -- essentially (acknowledging that lots of elements go into a good movie performance, awards don't equate to highest quality, and all that) which directors seem to encourage memorable acting. Anyway, William Wyler has the longest list

That's an interesting stat, and an impressively varied list of films/performances that makes one appreciate Wyler's greatness all over again.  (Also, while many don't feel artists should be judged by their personal lives, I'm personally giving Wyler extra points for not having the moral "life baggage" of either Kazan* or Allen)

*testifying during the McCarthy years, that is--just to make clear that its different from Allen's moral baggage

[3pwood]

Mick LaSalle (San Francisco Chronicle's film reviewer) wrote a great book, Dangerous Men, which discusses Lee Tracey's career at length -- versatile actor & interesting guy.

[voiceover]

Took the Nephew de Voiceover to see the TCM showing of Planet of the Apes today (eh, he's my date to all those events)...Very cool to see it on the big screen.  

The pre- and post-film intro with Ben M proved an unexpected delight.  It was an interview with the film's Dr Zaius (the actual orangutan who played him showed up), and it was HILARIOUS.  You should definitely check it out on the TCM website.

Two surprises: full frontal Heston.  AND: apparently, only the over-30 crowd gets the "See no evil/Hear no evil/Speak no evil" monkey joke.  When did that fall out of the vernacular?  I found myself having to explain it to an otherwise intelligent, aware 11-year-old.

[Rinaldo]

Where did the full frontal Heston happen? Certainly not in the movie itself -- my closeted teenage eyes examined every frame at the time. Did they have the equivalent of DVD deleted scenes?

[Crisopera]

Mick LaSalle also wrote a very entertaining book about pre-Code female stars - Complicated Women.  Gave me a new appreciation of pre-Code Norma Shearer.

[elle]

The Floradora Girl with Marion Davies is on now.  Can someone give me a review, since I can't see it#

The name intrigues me, the only association I have with "Floradora Girl" is the reference to them being gone from the Sinatra/Garrett duet in On the Town

 

#broken record

[mariah23]

Another for TCM Remembers: Marti Nixon has died at age 86.

[Rinaldo]

I saw about Marni Nixon; she has hung in for a good long (and active) life. I was lucky enough to see her onstage a couple of times, in addition to hearing her soundtrack ghosting. Her work for Deborah Kerr (in King and I and Affair to Remember) is an especially impressive piece of vocal trickery -- even after you know, it still sounds just the way Ms. Kerr would sound, if only she could sing that little bit better. And that's because they truly collaborated on it (Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood were more or less tricked), singing for each other during coaching to establish the similarity. And Kerr gave Nixon public credit (which the studio didn't want her to do).

The "Florodora Girls" were the six principal ladies of the chorus in the British musical Florodora, which was as big a hit in New York as it had been in London. They were publicized as the real stars of the show. I'll quote Wikipedia, since the information matches what I've read in other sources (and what I've taught in class):

Quote

They consisted of a "sextette of tall, gorgeous damsels, clad in pink walking costumes, black picture hats and carrying frilly parasols [who] swished onto the stage and captivated New York for no other reason than they were utterly stunning." More than 70 women, each 5 ft. 4 in... tall and weighing in at 130 lb... played these roles in the first run of the play. Pretty and petite, the girls were also the object of a great deal of popular adoration, and many young male admirers persuaded a good number of the girls in the show to leave and settle down. According to W. A. Swanberg: "Each member of its original sextette married a millionaire."

Fun fact: Evelyn Nesbit was in the chorus of Florodora (though not one of the select 6), and it was while she was in the show that she met Stanford White, who was ultimately shot by her eventual husband Harry K. Thaw, in the "Trial of the Century." (Immortalized in the book/film/musical Ragtime as well as in the movie The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing.)

[Milburn Stone]

2 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

And Kerr gave Nixon public credit (which the studio didn't want her to do).

I've learned (through asking on a couple of email lists) that this is why we know Marni Nixon's name today. Many singers made a living in Hollywood dubbing actors before Nixon, but they did so in total obscurity--while the public has always been well aware of Nixon, whether voicing Deborah or Natalie or Audrey. Nixon owed the public's awareness of her entirely to Kerr.

For those interested, movie buff Ray Hagen has compiled a complete-as-can-be list of who sang for whom in what, going back to the beginning of sound. I refer to it frequently.

http://janettedavis.net/Dubbers/dubberslist.php

[Rinaldo]

The other big step forward in public recognition for voice doubles was the movie of South Pacific, at the end of the 1950s. Apparently Rosanno Brazzi had hypnotized R&H and Logan and all when they auditioned him to play Emile de Becque, and left them thinking that he really did have the hypnotic bass voice the role requires. When it came time to shoot, they realized he had no such thing and would need to be dubbed. So they approached the famous bass Giorgio Tozzi, at the peak of his career at the Met and elsewhere. He agreed -- but on condition that he receive credit, and they had to agree. So as the opening credits for the movie go by, they include "and the voice of Giorgio Tozzi." And that was, as far as I know, a first. (They don't exactly say what "the voice" was contributing, but it was easy to figure out.) From then on, there was less and less of an attempt to hide dubbers' identities, though audiences didn't always realize how much of it went on: that everybody except Mitzi Gaynor and Ray Walston was dubbed in South Pacific, or that even Russ Tamblyn and Rita Moreno, who could sing and did sing for themselves at some points in West Side Story, were dubbed at other times.

Even more irrelevant aside: Giorgio Tozzi played Emile onstage in the late 1960s, and there's a cast recording that's available on CD. He and Florence Henderson are both excellent on it.

[Rinaldo]

Sometimes I surprise myself: I did set a recording of The Florodora Girl after all. I won't be able to finish it today, but I've just seen the first 10 minutes, and what a kick. Marion Davies is the last remaining "original Florodora girl" who hasn't snagged a wealthy husband, and she's offbeat and fun (so far). Plus, clearly the musical itself was in recent enough memory in 1930 that they felt obliged to get the details right: It's playing the Casino, they go to the roof garden for the after party, and the story begins with the orchestral playoff to the hit song "Tell Me, Pretty Maiden (Are There Any More at Home Like You?)" as we see the six girls prance offstage with their six beaux. I'll also get to see Walter Catlett, one of the famous vaudeville comics of the 1920s (his shtick was apparently similar to Groucho's), whom I know for introducing the title song in Lady, Be Good! in 1925. (A decade or so later, he was the voice of the fox in Pinocchio.) And Ilka Chase, whom I remember as a TV "personality" on things like "What's My Line" as well as evil stepmother to Julie Andrews in Cinderella, is in the movie too; I've never known her as an ingenue. Further report to come.

Edited to add: It's on TCM on Demand, so it's viewable even if not recorded.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Rinaldo

[voiceover]

17 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Where did the full frontal Heston happen? Certainly not in the movie itself

Yes.  But all at a distance.  The 3 astronauts strip down and jump into the pool at the base of a waterfall they discover.  The "alien" humans swipe their clothes and supplies; the 3 also get out of the pool nekkid to chase after them.

They'd have to freeze-frame on the big screen, and then expand the frame to get the best view.   I didn't see much, but I can tell you that Chuck didn't indulge in a Brazilian before shooting.

[bluepiano]

Love all the "trivia" being posted here. I put trivia in quotation marks, because while to the rest of the world it may seem meaningless little details, to us film nuts it's pure gold.

So, adding to the Marni Nixon discussion, I will toss out the nugget (no pun intended) that her son was Andrew Gold, a singer/songwriter who had a schlock pop hit back in the dreaded schlock pop days of the late '70s with "Lonely Boy." And that Nixon's husband/Andrew's Dad was composer Ernest Gold, who won an Academy Award for his score to Exodus.

And thanks to TCM for unearthing an obscure early sound movie called Love in the Rough which featured probably the largest movie role ever played by Benny Rubin, the Jewish comic actor. Rubin is mostly forgotten now, but he was quite popular in the old days of non PC ethnic humor. Rubin has the funniest scene in an otherwise pretty dull movie when he engages another caddy (they are both supposed to be passing as WASPs) in a Yiddish conversation.

Rubin had a smaller part in another obscure early sound movie recently shown on TCM, They Learned About Women, which is a baseball story with musical numbers (years before Take Me out the Ball Game). It starred the vaudeville team of Schenk and Van, plus the always charming Bessie Love. The movie is a veritable festival of ethnic humor, reflecting what was then popular on stage. The movie also features an extended musical number by the beautiful and talented African-American star Nina Mae McKinney. (Though she sadly receives no screen credit.) And Van sings a bluesy number called "Ten Sweet Mamas" in the locker room shower, accompanied by a chorus of naked men, that has to be seen to be believed.

The stereotyped ethnic humor of these early talkies was dropped by Hollywood soon after, but lived on for a number of year in radio shows like Life with Luigi. (Featuring Alan Reed, later the voice of Fred Flintstone, who could render virtually every stereotyped foreign accent under the sun).

Edited July 26, 2016 by bluepiano

[Crisopera]

Shoot.  I was confusing The Floradora Girl with Blondie of the Follies.  Although I have seen both of them, it's been many years since I saw Floradora Girl, and would like to take a look at it again.  (And Time Warner Cable doesn't support Watch TCM, for unknown reasons.) 

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, voiceover said:

The 3 astronauts strip down and jump into the pool at the base of a waterfall they discover.  The "alien" humans swipe their clothes and supplies; the 3 also get out of the pool nekkid to chase after them.

Yes, of course that scene. Every gay boy alive at that moment had that scene on total recall. We'll have to agree to disagree about its contents; despite every freeze-frame and motion capture and obsessional thoroughness available, the websites specializing in such things can advertise only "Rear" for Planet of the Apes, and I concur. Frontal male nudity in the movies at that moment seemed like something that would never happen. It had to wait another couple of years, for Medium Cool and Women in Love (and I Am Curious... Yellow, if one counts that). Apologies for going on about this stuff, but it was once important to me.

[voiceover]

I just saw the movie.  If websites will only quantify "full frontal" as "there's the penis", then of course they, and you, win.  But I am not the only one in the theater who saw pubic hair -- a phrase I was trying to avoid -- and I was not the only one to comment on it.

[Rinaldo]

Fair enough, voiceover. I agree that there was a glimpse of pubic hair. So we're both right! We just use different definitions.

[Padma]

Well, after that disappointing news about "Planet of the Apes"....

Marni Nixon's death reminded me of how disappointed many actresses were to be dubbed. For some reason, Ava Gardner in "Showboat" came to mind as I remember her saying she was told they'd use her voice and worked so hard at practicing for it.  I looked up to see who dubbed her (Not Nixon but Annette Warren) and her original performance of "Bill" is up on YouTube. She's not a professional, but there's a charm to having her do her own singing and, to my thinking, she's good enough that, had I been the director, I would have kept her vocals (helped her reputation and gotten some added buzz for the film, too).  Not sure how the decision was made, but posters there blame Arthur Freed's bias against using non-professional singers.