TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[wilsie]

8 hours ago, Jordan Baker said:

This afternoon, I stumbled on "In the Cool of the Day". I'd never seen it, nor had I ever heard of it.

What at odd film. Some of the moments (particularly those with Angela Lansbury) were pretty good, but . . . the film was so overwrought. And the music? Subtle it was not. A very young Jane Fonda was given some pretty bad dialogue to say, and, well, she struggled.

Instead of focusing on the story, I kept thinking how illogical some things were. For example, why would someone with chronic lung problems go trudging up hills? Who talked Jane Fonda into taking this role?

It was nice to see Peter Finch, though. And Greece was beautiful.

Jordan Baker, thank you!   I had so much trouble with Jane Fonda's smoking with her lung problems it was distracting.

[Charlie Baker]

A longish article, especially of interest to us classic film devotees, I would think, on film preservation, with good and bad news.

The Race to Save the Films We Love

[Crisopera]

I watched the echt pre-Code Broadway Thru a Keyhole as part of the Constance Cummings day yesterday and it was very entertaining indeed.  Written by the very powerful-at-the-time gossip columnist Walter Winchell and based on the Ruby Keeler-Al Jolson-Johnny "Irish" Costello story (closely enough for Jolson to punch Winchell).  Keeler worked for Texas Guinan (who's in the movie) as a teenage chorine.  The movie is full of Broadway celebrities, including the terrific Frances Williams, who sings a wonderful song, "Doin' the Uptown Lowdown."  Definitely worth a look if you enjoy pre-Codes (the women spend a whole lot of time in their lingerie).  Cummings' resume was full of pre-Codes, so I have a DVR full for weekend viewing!

[Charlie Baker]

I must try to catch Broadway Thru a Keyhole--it has Lucille Ball in a bit part, I understand.  So Cummings worked a lot in 30s Hollywood, but took off for England, presumably better parts, IMDB says, and her work over there didn't get a lot of exposure here.   I'm also curious to see her opposite Harold Lloyd in Movie Crazy. I saw her on stage in Arthur Kopit's Wings, a fantastic performance as a woman recovering from a stroke. That production was preserved for PBS. She also played Mary Tyrone opposite Olivier in Long Day's Journey into Night, which was recorded on video and somehow played on NBC, I believe.

[Rinaldo]

23 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

She also played Mary Tyrone opposite Olivier in Long Day's Journey into Night, which was recorded on video and somehow played on NBC, I believe.

I never saw those Olivier telecasts of American plays (they coincided with TV-less years in grad school), but they were made especially for video: Long Day's Journey into Night (1973, and this one was actually derived from a NT stage production), with Denis Quilley and Ronald Pickup, with Maureen Lipman as the maid. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976), with Maureen Stapleton as Big Mama, plus Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood. Come Back, Little Sheba (1977), with Joanne Woodward and Carrie Fisher. These seem to have dropped out of sight and availability; even if they're uneven (or downright bad), they're pieces of history.

[Charlie Baker]

Risking OT but anyway:  I saw all three of these at the time they aired in the US, and thought Long Day's Journey was the strongest.  Of course that could have been just because it was the greatest of the three fine plays and/or the fact that the production originated on stage. I don't remember any of them as out and out bad.  

[mariah23]

3 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

A longish article, especially of interest to us classic film devotees, I would think, on film preservation, with good and bad news.

The Race to Save the Films We Love

This is a great article.  I've always wanted to track down lost films, just a dream of mine.  Who knows, maybe there is a copy of London After Midnight hidden in your attic somewhere.

[Crisopera]

My wish is for a print of Convention City (1933).  The film so vulgar they had to destroy it!

[ratgirlagogo]

2 hours ago, mariah23 said:

 Who knows, maybe there is a copy of London After Midnight hidden in your attic somewhere.

Ah, one of the great Holy Grails of Famous Monsters of Filmland.  Although based on that still-and-script based reconstruction they did a few years back it would probably just turn out to be Mark of the Vampire minus the stunning proto-Goth Carroll Borland.

Still........

Edited August 25, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Rinaldo]

Another classic just caught via TCM/DVR for the first time: Night Must Fall from 1937. A classic -- its title still means something -- but it definitely belongs to the First Generation of suspense movies. All the tropes are there, but completely unironically and unselfconsciously: The isolated house, the crabby old lady, the mousy young female relative (who need only take off her glasses, and, my goodness...), the blarney-talkie' man from the lower classes, the dull but faithful suitor for the girl, the servants walking the line between saucy and deferential, the mysterious killer in the neighborhood (who turns out to be the obvious likely suspect from the beginning). It also looks like the First Generation of movies made from stage plays, with all the expositional dialogue dutifully left in place, and a character left alone talking aloud to clue us in (which seems reasonable onstage, less so on film), and barely a gesture at "opening it up" (when we actually see a scene set in the nearby village, it's rather a shock). Also, the sense of the early studio world as a kind of repertory company, with the usual contract players called in to fill all available roles, and this time it's English, so Rosalind Russell and Robert Montgomery have English accents, in support of the visiting guest star, re-creating her famous stage role.

But it's that visiting "guest star" I want to talk about, Dame May Whitty. I happen to have read a number of books by her daughter, the actress and director Margaret Webster, and so already had a full picture of Dame May's life. She had already had a long and distinguished stage career in London and on tours, eventually in her older days accepting this play because no better offers were coming along. It turned out to be her ticket to immortality, as she was invited to Hollywood to film it, already aged 70. (She wrote to her daughter, humorously but not unkindly, about the way the little cottage at the edge of the woods had become an elaborate multi-room estate, and its garden an expansive park with every kind of flower blooming at once.) And there in Hollywood she and her actor husband Ben Webster lived out their days. Their daughter was happy to see them physically safe (away from the combat in WWII) and financially secure in their old age, and Dame May was well employed playing mothers of famous historical figures. Her other best-remembered roles are probably those in The Lady Vanishes and Mrs. Miniver. But I especially like Lassie Come Home, in which Ben got to come out of retirement so they could offer a memorable and touching vignette as husband and wife. So many British actors of their generation (like Herbert Tree, Forbes Robertson, Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Mrs. Patrick Campbell) left little or nothing on film, it's gratifying that we have something substantial to remember her by.

(By the way, I did enjoy Night Must Fall.)

Edited August 25, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Crisopera]

I'm particularly fond of Dame May as the, well, title character in The Lady Vanishes.  (I loved Margaret Webster's Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage..)

[Rinaldo]

6 minutes ago, Crisopera said:

(I loved Margaret Webster's Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage..)

Isn't it a delightful read? Its predecessor, The Same Only Different, is also wonderful. It starts as a history of the Webster acting family, carrying through as a biography of her parents, also including her own early life. 

(A movie-related bit from the book: When, in the 1950s, she directed Tyrone Power in a stage production, they recalled that her great-grandfather, Ben Webster, had directed his great-grandfather, Tyrone Power, in the early nineteenth century in England. That particular pattern must be nearly unique.)

[3pwood]

2 hours ago, Crisopera said:

I'm particularly fond of Dame May as the, well, title character in The Lady Vanishes.  (I loved Margaret Webster's Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage..)

 

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Isn't it a delightful read? Its predecessor, The Same Only Different, is also wonderful. It starts as a history of the Webster acting family, carrying through as a biography of her parents, also including her own early life. 

(A movie-related bit from the book: When, in the 1950s, she directed Tyrone Power in a stage production, they recalled that her great-grandfather, Ben Webster, had directed his great-grandfather, Tyrone Power, in the early nineteenth century in England. That particular pattern must be nearly unique.)

 

Thank you both!  I'm surprised to find that my local library has both books & I've ordered them.  I was not familiar with Dame May Whitty's family & can't wait to learn about it. 

[stormy]

I watched Now Voyager (again) but read all the credits for the first time, I think.

I didn't know it was a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty.  Has anyone read it?

[3pwood]

I haven't read any of Prouty's novels but she wrote several, including Stella Dallas & a series of 5 "Vale Tales" about Charlotte's family, of which Now Voyager was one.   

[Crisopera]

I just bought the Kindle version of Now Voyager, so once I finish my current book, I'll read it and report back.

[bmoore4026]

Boris Karloff Day today!!!

Watching Roger Corman's The Terror, which co-stars Jack Nicholson.  For all of MST3K's ribbing of his movies, this is probably Corman's best film.  It is a bit weird seeing the actress who played Meg Maud in The Undead as, again, an old witch, this time of the wicked variety.  Doesn't make her performance any less awesome though.

Later tonight are the first two famous Universal Studios Frankenstien movies, along with The Mummy and The Black Cat (co-staring Bela Legosi), so anyone who hasn't seen them yet, here's your chance.

Edited August 26, 2016 by bmoore4026

[voiceover]

Watching the Karloff marathon, and remembering I am ohso into House Porn!  Those early 30s flicks are awash in perfect lamps (table AND standing) and divine crockery.  And even though I'm not a fan of Art Deco, wow! Loving me some props.

[Tosia]

Night Must Fall remains one of my favorite movies cuz of al

l the tropes mentioned above.  

Also, my mom and I watched it together and got so caught up in it that we forgot to go shopping with my sister.  She called, but we said that we HAD to finish this old movie.  

We both gasped when Dame May got up from the wheel chair! She was so great.  My mom,  too.

I got the dvd, but still watch it whenever it's on. Thank you,  TCM.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Tosia

[ratgirlagogo]

14 hours ago, voiceover said:

Watching the Karloff marathon

Yes! heaven.  Haven't even gotten to some of the things I DVRd - the Mr Wong, for example.  So lovely to watch Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein one after the other (and as I've said before, AFI can bite me - Bride of Frankenstein is the greatest Hollywood movie ever made).

[Padma]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 10:23 AM, bluepiano said:

...Michael Caine is one of my all-time favorites, so I'm okay with him winning for any part. Though I wish he had a Best Actor award, instead of (or in addition to) his two Supporting wins.  I was pulling heavily for him to win for Educating Rita, figuring it might be his last great leading part before becoming a character actor. He was amazing in Sleuth, though Olivier also being nominated for Best Actor from the same movie probably killed his chances. And then of course there was Alfie, though he was quite young at the time.

When Caine passes away it will be a very sad day for me. Though he didn't come along until the '60s, I think of him as the last of the old time movie stars. Though he's always so humble and self-deprecating in interviews, he would probably balk at that description.

I was surprised Caine won for Hannah and Her Sisters, but thinking of the movie now, it's his role that is the memorable one to me--somehow making Elliot sympathetic and, though more subtle than I think of for Oscars for some reason, he was wonderful and made the movie work (imo. Then again, I'm a big fan, too).

I wish TCM would have a Michael Caine day. It's been years since I've seen Sleuth, one of my all-time favorites.  I can't think of anyone else who is so good playing off a male lead, not just with women. Olivier in Sleuth, Connery in "The Man Who Would Be King" and, honestly, I think it's Michael Caine's performance than makes me enjoy "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels". Though Steve Martin's good in it, I can think of any number of likely actors to have done the Caine part that wouldn't have worked for me like Michael Caine.

Apparently he's a huge trivia buff, always full of random facts. So in his honor, here are a couple. (1) He got his last name from the film that was playing at the Odeon at the time, "The Caine Mutiny", (2) he has always kept his real name in private, Maurice Micklewhite, and had Queen Elizabeth II knight him as Micklewhite, not Caine, and (3) John Houston, such a difficult and demanding director, said of Caine, "Michael is one of the most intelligent men among the artists I've known. I don't particularly care to throw the ball to an actor and let him improvise, but with Michael it's different. I just let him get on with it."  Maybe it's his sense of humor that makes him seem so much younger. It's hard to believe he's 83 years old now.  I hope someone will have a great role for him again--and perhaps that he'll also update his autobiography for the last 20 years. (No complete retirement, Michael Caine, please!)

[bmoore4026]

I missed much of James Garner day today, but I am watching Support Your Local Sheriff.  Later, The Great Escape and Grand Prix are following it.  Marlowe will be the last movie out of this marathon and I hope I don't miss it.  Would love to see his take on the character.

I have a super crush on James Garner and I love that his career really blossomed after he left Warner Bros.  Yeah, Maverick suffered after he left (Jack Kelly was no James Garner.  Neither was Roger Moore), but its loss was his gain so it's all good.

[Milburn Stone]

Seriously, no one else is seeing the skip-framing artifact on some TCM movies? It was pretty bad on today's The Thrill of It All (Garner-Day) when I tried watching it on the DVR tonight.

I'd say it's something to do with my DVR, except I never see the problem except with movies on TCM. (And sometimes I see it on TCM when watching "live.") The host intro by Tiffany Vasquez (who is she, anyway?) played just fine, but as soon as the main titles of the movie rolled, the skip-framing (with concomitant audio skipping) began.

Is this something TCM is doing to squeeze movies into a time-slot? Doesn't seem like something TCM would do, but I'm at a loss to come up with an explanation. (I tried asking them through their Facebook page a while back, but three guesses as to whether I heard anything back from them, and you only need one.)

Edited August 28, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

I just watched the start of my DVR'd How Sweet It Is. (There's no intro by Tiffany Vasquez or anyone else, by the way, just the wordless TCM old-movie montage.) I don't see or hear anything like what you're describing, just as I didn't last time you asked this. Maybe my eyes or ears are deficient, but until that's proven I'd hypothesize that it's something in your chain of transmission: local cable provider, cable box, DVR, or TV. But I have no idea really, I only know that I'm not seeing it.

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

...I'd hypothesize that it's something in your chain of transmission: local cable provider, cable box, DVR, or TV.

I know. I'm kind of at wit's end, because all the logical filters I can put this through rule out all those sensible hypotheses. Logical filters like, "Does it happen on any other channel? No." 

[bluepiano]

20 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

I have a super crush on James Garner and I love that his career really blossomed after he left Warner Bros. 

I've always been a Garner fan, and while most people probably think of him as light comedy actor (ie, his films with Doris Day), he could definitely handle more dramatic and demanding parts. I could easily seem him as having been a star back in Hollywood's Golden Era, because he was versatile and had the easy charm of a William Powell or Melvyn Douglas.

On ‎8‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 8:41 AM, Crisopera said:

I watched the echt pre-Code Broadway Thru a Keyhole as part of the Constance Cummings day yesterday and it was very entertaining indeed.  Written by the very powerful-at-the-time gossip columnist Walter Winchell and based on the Ruby Keeler-Al Jolson-Johnny "Irish" Costello story (closely enough for Jolson to punch Winchell).  Keeler worked for Texas Guinan (who's in the movie) as a teenage chorine.  The movie is full of Broadway celebrities, including the terrific Frances Williams, who sings a wonderful song, "Doin' the Uptown Lowdown." 

And Blossom Seeley, who was a huge singing star, gives one of her rare movie performances and is actually very good in an Eve Arden/Helen Broderick wisecracking friend of the star role. For me the fun of movies like these is getting a window into night life back in that legendary era (If I had a time machine, Broadway in the 1930s would be near the top of my list to visit). Texas Guinan actually being in this movie gives it an added element of authenticity.

We also get to see Russ Colombo, a famous crooner (considered Bing Crosby's top rival) who died at only 26 in a bizarre shooting accident. (He was romantically involved with Carole Lombard at the time)

In terms of the plot, interesting how close the story is to Love Me or Love Me, also based on a true story. Gangster is smitten with singer, uses his power to make her star, she is grateful but doesn't love him, falls in love with musician. Well, I guess that was probably not that unusual a scenario. Gangsters were heavily entwined with the entertainment world, as the owners of night clubs in the major cities, and I'm sure more than a few fell for some pretty young thing. Though the difference between real life and the movies is that in real life the pretty young things may not have been all that naïve.

Edited August 28, 2016 by bluepiano

[prican58]

I went to see The King and I today with my parents. I knew mamiprican was easy to convince to go but papiprican, not so much. After much hemming and hawing he decided he would accompany us and damn if he stayed awake for the whole film and he even hummed some tunes.

I have to say that seeing it reconfirmed it as one of my all time fave musicals as I have been listening to the soundtrack my entire life. We still have an original soundtrack album from back in the day. The color is brilliant and while it was not a letter box film, it was a Cinemascope 55 and it filled the screen beautifully. I cried on almost all the tunes as they are just so beautiful and really do move the story along. I simply adore Something Wonderful as it really tells the audience just what kind of man the King is. The children are just so adorable and their whole introduction is one of my favorite scenes. I've only ever seen this on tv and on the big screen it is just so much more of an experience. The Shall We Dance number is really the shining star of the film. Brynner is just so mesmerizing in his beautiful burgundy outfit and his physicality (is that even a word?) as they polka their way around the room.  

I love this movie and I urge everyone to see it Wed the 31st.  And take an older person who remembers when it was originally released in 1956 or maybe an impressionable youngster as this is the kind of movie that needs to always be remembered. 

[Charlie Baker]

Physicality is a good word to use in discussing Mr. Brynner. :-)

TCM is wonderful for TV and streaming (those of you who can) but yes, there is a quality in seeing a classic on a large screen in a darkened theater that can't be matched overwise.

[Mumbles]

Quote

Garner...definitely handle more dramatic and demanding parts.

Agreed. Love him as Rockford, but he really showed her could do more than smartass in his small role as Audrey Hepburn's boyfriend in The Children's Hour. 

[bluepiano]

14 hours ago, Mumbles said:

Agreed. Love him as Rockford, but he really showed he could do more than smartass in his small role as Audrey Hepburn's boyfriend in The Children's Hour. 

Yes, that was on of the roles that I was thinking of. He was also really good as the cynical naval office in The Americanization of Emily.

I think he was also a pioneer of sorts in that he did started doing series television while his movie career was simultaneously going strong.

At the time, most actors looked down on television, and only did it while they were trying to break into major movie roles (ie. Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood), or because their movie career never quite took off or was on the downward slope. (ie. Chuck Connors, Gene Barry, Robert Stack etc.)

Edited August 29, 2016 by bluepiano

[mariah23]

Another one for TCM Remembers and this one hurts: Gene Wilder.

[NewDigs]

Ohh. Sad.

The real Willy Wonka. And a fabulous Dr Frahnkensteen. And so much more.

RIP

[Padma]

Sad news. I didn't realize he was suffering from Alzheimer's. He was so wonderful in Young Frankenstein and The Producers, but for a tribute to Gene Wilder, the man, I'd recommend Gilda Radner's book, "It's Always Something". https://www.amazon.com/Its-Always-Something-Twentieth-Anniversary/dp/1439148864/ref=pd_sim_14_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JZKFPKP89FGTY0S6CP0M  Much better than his own book in a way because you see him through her eyes, not his own. She loved him so much.

[ratgirlagogo]

God, what a crush I had on him myself when I was in high school in the seventies. He was just glorious in Young Frankenstein.  One of my personal favorites for him was Start the Revolution Without Me with the equally hot Donald Sutherland.

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, ratgirlagogo said:

One of my personal favorites for him was Start the Revolution Without Me with the equally hot Donald Sutherland.

Definitely a movie not remembered enough today.

[voiceover]

A sad day.  I echo the Wilder tributes already here, and link the lovely message from his family.

And...

He also owns one of, if not the, best monologues in the Mel Brooks canon. It's from Blazing Saddles: his story of how the Waco Kid was forced into retirement:

"I heard a voice behind me say, 'Reach for it, Mister!'  I spun around...there I was, face-to-face with a 6-year-old kid.  Well, I threw my guns down and walked away...[beat]...Little bastard shot me in the ass!"

Dear Gene!  "...Comedy is harder."  But you made it look so easy.

Edited August 30, 2016 by voiceover
trying to recreate that speech from memory

[Mumbles]

Quote

Much better than his own book in a way because you see him through her eyes, not his own. She loved him so much.

What is surprising to me is that in the NYT obituary, it said that he had admitted that in the early days of their marriage, it was tough going (he found her very needy) and they didn't get along all the time, but they truly loved each other. 

He was wonderful. He had very strong co-stars, but managed to hold his own, a testament to his own quiet presence and confidence. And that timing!

[Charlie Baker]

Gene Wilder's memoir is worth reading--he's pretty unsparing, towards himself as much as anyone, but it's also very warm, full of life, and funny.  But I do get the point about GIlda's book.   What I didn't know was that after the memoir, he published fiction.

Very talented and very distinctive man.

[prican58]

Checking out Guys and Dolls because any movie that stars 3 of my favorite actors/performers has to be seen dozens of times. That would be Frank, Brando and Simmons, btw. I don't think Simmons ever had a more physical role. All that dancing and brawling in Cuba seems so un Simmons like. Love the fact that she actually sang in this! 

Wish I had seen Angel Face again because I love that big lug Mitchum and this is the role that put Simmons on my mental map. 

I noticed George E. Stone (Otero in Little Caesar) as Society Max. 

[Milburn Stone]

19 minutes ago, prican58 said:

Checking out Guys and Dolls because any movie that stars 3 of my favorite actors/performers has to be seen dozens of times. That would be Frank, Brando and Simmons, btw. I don't think Simmons ever had a more physical role. All that dancing and brawling in Cuba seems so un Simmons like. Love the fact that she actually sang in this! 

I just chanced upon "I'll Know" (with Brando singing and Simmons slapping), and I was kind of enchanted by it! "Conventional wisdom" is that it's an awful movie with terrible casting (Brando sings?!?? Sinatra as Nathan Detroit instead of Sky Masterson?!??!?), and I didn't think very much of it when I saw it on TV many years ago, but the crisp, vivid print TCM was showing may have helped me feel more kindly to it. Maybe I need to give this movie another look sometime.

[prican58]

It would be nice if TCM had it on the big screen. Have they already done that? 

I love Brando in this and yes, it would seem a bit of bad casting if one has never seen it. But I think he acquits himself very well. He danced well in the Cuba club and I enjoy his performance in this.

Simmons is so under appreciated as a great actress, in my opinion. And in Mankiewicz' opinion , as well.

Quote

She took a risk, singing If I Were a Bell and The Eyes of a Woman in Love, to be Sister Sarah in the movie of Guys and Dolls (1955). The producer, Sam Goldwyn, had wanted Grace Kelly for the part. But director Joseph L Mankiewicz was more than happy with Simmons: "An enormously underrated girl. In terms of talent, Jean Simmons is so many heads and shoulders above most of her contemporaries, one wonders why she didn't become the great star she could have been." No one argued, though many observers noted that Mankiewicz was also deeply in love with his actress. Still, it is worth speculating, and noting that nothing sounds wrong or unpromising about this schedule – Jean Simmons in Roman Holiday, in Vertigo, in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?

Just a little bit in love with her.

Edited August 31, 2016 by prican58

[Jordan Baker]

2 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

I just chanced upon "I'll Know" (with Brando singing and Simmons slapping), and I was kind of enchanted by it! "Conventional wisdom" is that it's an awful movie with terrible casting (Brando sings?!?? Sinatra as Nathan Detroit instead of Sky Masterson?!??!?), and I didn't think very much of it when I saw it on TV many years ago, but the crisp, vivid print TCM was showing may have helped me feel more kindly to it. Maybe I need to give this movie another look sometime.

My introduction to "Guys and Dolls" was from the "Forbidden Hollywood" CD. There's a wicked parody of Brando singing "I'll Know."

I caught the second half of the movie tonight, and so I missed the Havana sequence. I did see "Luck Be a Lady," though, and I have to agree that Brando isn't much of a singer. But he does go all in on the role, and, well, it's Brando.

Loved Stubby Kaye in "Sit Down (You're Rockin' the Boat)".

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, Jordan Baker said:

I have to agree that Brando isn't much of a singer. But he does go all in on the role, and, well, it's Brando.

That's what struck me in "I'll Know"--the acting. Something in the way he moves--you believe he's getting through to her. And when he grabs her and kisses her--wow, she's been grabbed and kissed. Made me think he wasn't wrong for the part after all.

[bmoore4026]

Today's the last day of this year's Summer Under the Stars and the spotlight star is going to be Dean Martin

[Rinaldo]

I just started watching my DVR'd Home Before Dark. So far the conventional wisdom (which I confess I got mostly from Pauline Kael) is looking true -- understated, if anything. There seems to be a stunning divergence of taste and insight between the conventional, simple-minded movie itself (burdened at the outset with the most inappropriately schlock-y of all "title songs") and the exquisite, sensitive performance by Jean Simmons at its center. We'll see how it progresses.

[Rinaldo]

Aaaaaand it stayed like that to the end. The coldest cold fish of a professorial husband ever (Dan O'Herlihy), himself unaware that he cares more for his wife's stepsister (Rhonda Fleming) than his own wife, despite her being so sure it was true that he had her institutionalized before the movie started. She comes home (after electroshock treatments) feeling recovered and hopeful, only to find that her delusions were true. Undeniably it's always satisfying to see the passive victim finally get some gumption and tell everyone off near the end (she fires the snooty maid, tells her uncaring stepmother to STFU (in civilized 1958 terms), lets husband and stepsister know what she thinks of them, and calls up Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (young and appealing here as the former boarder who's been booted off the faculty) to drive her away from all this -- her house and her money, she reminds everyone, so they better clear out within the month.

Through all of this, Jean Simmons is touchingly real and believable, no matter how rote the dialogue and situations get. A class act all the way.

[voiceover]

On August 25, 2016 at 11:16 AM, Crisopera said:

The film so vulgar they had to destroy it!

Bwah!

Now *that's* a tag line for a poster that I would have framed.

[bluepiano]

Preston Sturges night on TCM. Sheer, unadulterated joy.

[Crisopera]

I was looking at yesterday's fairly random lineup on my DVR menu and could not figure out who the "star of the day" was (I like to try to figure it out on my own every day).  Imagine my chagrin when I realized it was September 1st, and no longer Summer Under the Stars.  Sigh.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Crisopera

[Rinaldo]

I finished The Razor's Edge last night. I remember that Maugham's novel was one of the handful of classics on my parents' bookshelf, and that I found it rather unsatisfying as a reading experience, being an undigested mix of high-society comedy, mystic uplift, and tragedy; I wonder why people keep trying to film it. (That Bill Murray also demanded it as a vehicle is even more puzzling.) The 1946 film is at least well cast, with Tyrone Powers's looks and magnetism doing as much to make Larry Darrell's mystic impulses plausible as one can expect; Anne Baxter getting the kind of riches-to-abject-misery role that wins awards (and did, for her); Gene Tierney getting to be selfish and icy (though not fundamentally evil) again, not to mention unbearably gorgeous; and Clifton Webb embodying a snooty aristocrat that might have been written with him in mind. But oh my, the lines and situations, of which my favorite is the Holy Man's terrace in India with a nice bright mountain backdrop hanging at one end and an 8-part choir on retainer.