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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/07/2021 in all areas

  1. Well, last night I watched the noir TOO LATE FOR TEARS '49 for the first time. Someone here had talked about it here & my library had a newly restored version-yay! This movie had me from the very beginning- a married couple is driving down the road when someone in another car tosses a sachel into the back seat of their convertible! They stop, look & the bag is full of MONEY! Realizing the mistake, another car chases them, but they lose him & drive home to discuss what to do. The husband is adamant they turn the money over to the police, but the wife gets a gleam in her eye...let's keep it! The entire movie now revolves around the wife's greed in keeping the money and not allowing anyone to get in her way. The story takes twists & turns that surprise me all the way through, but it is the performances that really elevate this movie to greatness. The star is Lizabeth Scott -a favorite- and boy is she outstanding in this one. Scott never looked prettier wearing a smooth platinum bob and a great wardrobe, oh and that smoky voice! Second tour-de-force is Dan Duryea who plays his typical gangster role but really gets to expand his repertoire with fabulous snappy dialogue & unusual emotion. Yeah, he's the cold, hardened gangster but Scott's charactor is so bad, she has HIM scared! I just loved Duryea's portrayal, especially when roughing up Scott. Some of the lines between them made me howl out loud! Honorable mentions go out to Arthur Kennedy as the husband and Kristine Miller as the husbands sister who lives next door. I couldn't take my eyes off her long bouncy hair! Don DeFore was outstanding as the "old Army Buddy" of the husband (Kennedy) who gets involved after taking a liking to his friend's sister & mistrusting his friend's wife (Scott) All strong performances that completely supported the story. The story. It takes all sorts of twists & turns, but never confuses. (I'm easily confused) You think you know how she's going to "get away" with it, then something unexpected happens. There was never a dull minute in this movie, it really was just a perfect noir. I'd say the quintessential noir. Watching classic movies for over 4 decades, I'm so afraid to have "seen them all". It was so wonderful to be excited over seeing & being surprised by a great movie for the first time!! So rarely happens. (one thing I noticed is how TINY Lizabeth Scott was-both in size & stature. Most notable in close ups, she had a tiny face compared to everyone else)
    5 points
  2. Death On The Nile (1978) TCM on Demand 6/10 Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) investigates the murder of an heiress (Lois Chiles) on a steamship down the Nile. The cast is more interesting than the mystery, which is very long (2 hours 20 min) and slowly paced but the ending came as a surprise to me. Bette Davis as a sarcastic old rich lady and Maggie Smith as her equally mouthy nurse have some very funny catty banter but there is not much of them here. Mia Farrow has one of her best roles as a woman jilted by her fiancee (Simon MacCorkindale) who leaves her for ill fated Chiles. Farrow and Chiles had also appeared together in the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby. David Niven plays Poirot's lawyer friend who helps with the investigation. Angela Lansbury has some funny over the top moments as a writer of romantic novels, Olivia Hussey plays her sweet and innocent daughter. George Kennedy is Chiles' money hungry uncle and Jack Warden plays a German doctor. (He struggles a bit with the accent.) It is worth seeing but I liked the 1974 Murder On The Orient Express much more.
    3 points
  3. Miriam Hopkins, Star of the Month, I don't think has been ever so honored. But the recognition, or its repetition is long overdue. One of the brightest lights in my movie star firmament, she radiated an earthy unashamed sensuality paired paradoxically with a refinement that came from a patrician upbringing. We start off this Thursday with a trio of movies she made with Ernst Lubitsch, which are three of her best. The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) is a romantic comedy set in the world of the aristocracy and military of early 20th century central Europe, a theme he exploited repeatedly. Nikolaus (Maurice Chevalier), a Lieutenant, through a misunderstanding, is compelled to marry the dowdy Princess Anna (Hopkins). But he pines for his pretty Franzi (Claudette Colbert), the violin-playing leader of an all-woman orchestra. This was her first big movie role, and one would have expected her to be dominated by the other two, but she holds her own against them. Her vivacity, sparkle, sexiness, and comic timing charm us as Anna charms her 'Niki': Although Design for Living (1933), a romantic comedy about a menage-á-trois without sex, is a more important movie in terms of cinematic history, my personal favorite of the three is Trouble in Paradise (1932). It is so delightfully satiric, and irreverent, skewering pomposity, pretentiousness, and phoniyness. With an opening that has a Venetian garbage gondola piloted by an opera-spouting trash collector, how could it fail? It's hard to choose one from the many terrific scenes, but here's one between Lily (Hopkins), and her future lover Gaston (Herbert Marshall), two fakers, faking each other:
    3 points
  4. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, I think it's 8 films together
    3 points
  5. George Burns and Gracie Allen Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes
    2 points
  6. Sorry, I clearly misread the "brought" comment as related to TCM. I also love TCM and some of the programming "lately" (say the last 6 months), hasn't been the type of programming I desire, but as long as TCM continues to show mostly American Studio-Era films (30s - 60s).
    2 points
  7. Andrea, hoping that you're feeling much better asap. Sorry to read you're ill. I didn't watch the film, can't blame you for feeling that way about the programming.
    2 points
  8. Bogie and Bacall Not husband and wife, but Tracy and Hepburn Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward Also, there are people like Frances McDormand and it is either Joel or Ethan Coen.
    2 points
  9. The Fuller Brush Man (1948) The Matchmaker (1958) The Fiddler on the Roof (1971) The Producers (1967) Death of a Salesman (many versions) The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951)
    2 points
  10. I've been a pretty hardcore classic film lover since my youth in the early nineties (the glorious days of VHS, TNT, TBS, the original AMC and Cinemax) and I can say that I am STILL SURPRISED by films all the time- films I did not even know existed, costarring actors who I never knew worked together or worked together on more films than I knew. Just last weekend, I came across a review of THE DEATH KISS (1933)- an independent murder mystery set at a HOLLYWOOD studio that starred DAVID MANNERS, EDWARD VAN SLOAN and in an inadequate, but still substantial role- BELA LUGOSI. Found it online and watched it, and while it wasn't good (at all really) it's still neat as hell to come across a secret room in a house you thought you knew every inch of. i mean, i've read LUGOSI'S filmography up and down on imdb, and this one did not ring even the faintest bell for me. take it from me- you haven't seen it all, NONE of us has- there are still HUNDREDS of films we have yet to stub our toe on!
    2 points
  11. Ida Lupino and Howard Duff
    2 points
  12. I will always remember her as the old gypsy woman Maleva in The Wolf Man and Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. She was totally beliveable and even quite touching in her concern for werewolf Lon Chaney Jr in the films. These were her only two appearances as the character and the only films of hers that I saw. We unfortunately don't know the fate of her character at the end of the second film, she merely disappears just before the battle royle between The Monster and The Wolf Man and is never seen again.
    2 points
  13. She should have won the Oscar purely for turning a leather jacket into a full leather catsuit, complete with gloves and a headpiece.
    2 points
  14. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
    2 points
  15. THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA (1963)
    1 point
  16. I am reminded of the soap opera heartthrob who tried to expand his appeal by doing a movie with a nude scene. He lost many fans because of his disappointingly small part.
    1 point
  17. REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT 1962
    1 point
  18. Yes, #8 is Jane Greer. She starred in "Out Of The Past" with Robert Mitchum, a Bridgeport, Connecticut native. Princess got seven and Peebs got three. Normally, Princess would get the thread, but since she doesn't post photos, that means that Peebs gets to go next.
    1 point
  19. That's the couple, Lavender. His last film was The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Here they are in The Cure for Love (1949):
    1 point
  20. Flora Robson was an underrated actress. She played Queen Elizabeth I and Cleopatra's maid (who knew how to kill when necessary). She had one of those faces where she probably looked old when she was younger. Yes, there are so many films to discover and rediscover (some I'd prefer I didn't rewatch like Murphy's Romance with James Garner and Sally Field - didn't see the chemistry). After watching too much of the horror movie/story unfolding in D.C., I turned to Law and Order repeats, Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune, and then Death on the Nile (Good cast and I have seen it before - recently saw a David Suchet Poirot version made for PBS/British Television with Emily Blunt in it). Supposedly, Albert Finney turned down another go at Poirot. Maggie Smith did better in the next film Evil Under the Sun (which I didn't stick around for).
    1 point
  21. Happy New Year to you, too, Lav! A young boy from the right side of the tracks enjoys spending his time with the kids on the wrong side of the tracks, despite the fact that his father has told him not to go there.
    1 point
  22. It would be just like the film industry to remake Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure (1929). (WARNING: Search this title at YOUR OWN RISK to your computer and/or SANITY.)
    1 point
  23. Nice choice. I saw her in Kings Row, which is one of my all time favorites. The Rains Came with a very young Tyrone Power and I saw her in Dodsworth.
    1 point
  24. 99 RIVER STREET (1953)
    1 point
  25. F A L S T A F F : played by Orson Welles in CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT
    1 point
  26. NEIL YOUNG Rust Never Sleeps
    1 point
  27. Note : I have been remiss of late with appropriate responses (out of sync) as I continue to have Site problems in being whisked to the latest post or otherwise finding the last post. A little more attention would solve this problem but it's a pain in the neck not to be rely on former times when even this was not particularly necessary. This last mini-upgrade has been more of a downgrade. Anyone else have to click two or three times on a link before launch, or no? Thanks all ... back to the show. Dog Day Afternoon next : doing the hula
    1 point
  28. Mr. Mom (1983) Next: A film directed by Sidney Lumet
    1 point
  29. I actually wrote a paper for AP English in High School that MICHELLE PFEIFFER should have won the BEST ACTRESS OSCAR for BATMAN RETURNS and I 100% stand by that today. the film on the other hand...(makes wavy hand gesture) eh....
    1 point
  30. From January 6-8, 1921, the Poli ran Oh, Lady, Lady, starring Bebe Daniels as Mary Barber, Harrison Ford as Hale Underwood, and Walter Hiers as Willoughby Finch. The film was released in November of 1920 at five reels, and is presumed lost. Plot: Willoughby Finch says goodbye to his country sweetheart, Mary Barber, promising her that he’s a “one woman man.” But as time goes by, Finch becomes engaged to society girl Molly Farringdon. Mary, who has become a famous actress and uses the stage name of Rilla Rooke, returns from a trip abroad, and while on a train, meets Hale Underwood. Underwood is to be the best man at Finch’s wedding. He falls for Mary. Arriving at the hotel, Mary discovers Finch is about to get married. She phones Finch that she is coming to see him. Her intention is to congratulate him, but Finch misinterprets her motives, believing she wants to break up his impending marriage. So he enlists a press agent to cover up his prior relationship. But the press agent makes a mess of the situation. He decides to hire an actress to play a vamp, pretend to be Finch’s lover, and scare away Mary. He inadvertently hires Mary for the part, not realizing who she is. Mary thinks she is helping Finch escape from an unhappy engagement, and she arrives, dressed as the vamp, during the wedding rehearsal, which shocks Finch: The wedding is called off. Worse, Underwood is now confused about Mary. Mary confesses to Underwood that she was only playing a part, and all concerned are reunited. One clever scene involves Bebe Daniels castigating her press agent. The effect is magnified on screen by having the press agent actually shrink in size, getting smaller and smaller the more he is berated, until he finally has to tip-toe to reach the door knob to let himself out. The still below (probably a publicity shot) shows Walter Hiers with Bebe Daniels and Harrison Ford: The next still (also probably a publicity shot) shows Hiers with Daniels: The still below shows director Maurice Campbell working with Hiers and Daniels, probably in a scene from the first part of the film: The film was adapted from a musical comedy of the same name, written by Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse. Wid’s Daily wrote “there’s some really fine comedy contained in it and the complications that arise over the hero’s attempt to marry a society girl afford opportunity for exceptionally good comedy business. … the comedy business all the way through is natural and not forced. The titles are great. Whoever wrote them knows how to do it.” Motion Picture News remarked that the film contained “enough values of a farcical nature to provide a pleasant vehicle for the display of Bebe Daniels’ charm and talent. One must characterize it as wholesome entertainment which is exceedingly frail, but which conquers for its comedy highlights.” The Moving Picture World said that the film had “a radiance all its own. There is plenty of snap to the clever subtitles, and the action is never for a moment dull.” Also on the bill was a comedy short entitled Kids Is Kids, with Carter DeHaven and his wife. The two-reeler was released September 12, 1920. The DeHavens play a young married couple who volunteer to take charge of several orphans after an orphanage has burned down. When the couple also babysit for a young boy named Cicero, the orphans shave his head, sending his mother into a rage. There is also an overflowing bathtub, and, according to Wid’s Daily, “the ice cream scene and the business with the piano all get over very nicely.” Exhibitor’s Herald wrote “the picture is good fun and will be enjoyed, especially by those who have young children in their homes.” I did find a still, without context, of DeHaven encountering a dog:
    1 point
  31. THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE 1936
    1 point
  32. 1 point
  33. Thursday, January 7 12:30 p.m. Let Us Be Gay (1930). With two Canadian actresses, Norma Shearer and Marie Dressler.
    1 point
  34. Hondo next : Cormac McCarthy [ BTW, nice thread title ]
    1 point
  35. We see her in the kitchen, at breakfast and dinner, or talking with next-door-neighbor Millie between chores, but--unlike certain overbearing feminist/Millennial issue-laden sniggering Disney/Marvel streaming series 😡 --we rarely see her wearing a sweet domestic June Cleaver dress and apron. Laura Petrie introduced a female 60's generation to Capri pants.
    1 point
  36. I still remember watching this in the theater the Friday it came out. The turn it takes in the last third took me by surprise. Back in those days, you could read reviews and still not know the ending. Nowadays, you can pretty much find out everything about a movie from various sources online before you see it. There was also a surprise, because I knew one of the minor actors personally, as he worked with my brother at a television station. This was one of his first film roles, and when he popped up on screen, it was truly an OMG moment.
    1 point
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