Members

Not a fan of the Sound of Music either but Austria and the cities of Salzburg and Innsbruck are worth the trip. Using a train to get from the various cities is a breeze and very enjoyable. My wife and I flew into Munich and then took the train to each of these towns staying for 3 nights each. We went in May and while there was a light snow one day, the next day it was sunny and in the 70s. Thus the mountains looked liked they do in the photo. Here is Salzburg: Those hills are alive!

also this

More on the Night of the Hunter and the cinematographer: The director of photography was Stanley Cortez, who also shot Orson Welles' 1942 film The Magnificent Ambersons. Because Laughton had very little experience working with film, Cortez would visit his house to explain various concepts of camera lenses, camera heights, and what effect each of them gave.[42] Laughton told Cortez that the nitrate prints of the silent movies that he had been watching for research impressed them with how sharp they looked, so he asked Cortez to create that same sharpness for The Night of the Hunter.[43] The studio brought most of the crew from a recent film Black Tuesday because they had worked so well together, and Cortez had experimented with a new black-and-white film Kodak Tri-X on that production, with great results. He chose to shoot certain scenes of this film on Tri-X because it had a sharp contrast that would help fulfill Laughton's vision.[4

From February 6-9, 1921, the Poli ran The Life of the Party, starring Fatty Arbuckle as Algernon Leary. The film was released on December 12, 1920, at five reels. Copies are held in the Library of Congress and a few other archives. There is a short clip on YouTube. Plot: Algernon Leary is a young lawyer whose business is non-existent. His safe contains an assortment of “beverages.” When his stenographer interrupts him taking a nip, he holds the bottle behind him, with his back to the window. A window cleaner on the scaffold outside then relieves Leary of the bottle. Milly Hollister, a member of the Better Babies League, goes to Judge Voris for advice on how to fight the Milk Trust, who are profiteers. The Judge, who is cahoots with the Trust, sends Milly to see Leary, knowing the lawyer is incompetent. Loris then meets with two members of the Trust, who forward Leary a check for $5000 as a bribe. Leary is in desperate need of funds, and is tempted to take the money, but Milly wins him over. When the case comes to trial, Voris makes Leary look foolish and throws the case out. Leary denounces Voris, claiming the Judge is a tool of the Milk Trust. Since Voris is running for Mayor, the women of the League put Leary up against him. The Trust tries to frame Leary by having him photographed with a vamp named “French Kate.” Leary then attends a party where everyone is told to wear child’s clothes. He is the life of the party, as he dresses himself as a little boy in rompers. But he leaves the party depressed, since Milly turns against him. On his way home in a snowstorm, he is robbed of his overcoat. He wanders about in his rompers, until he lands in the apartment house where Milly and Judge Voris both live. French Kate is visiting the judge with some important information. There is a wild chase throughout the apartments, and at one point, Leary disguises himself as a chair. When Leary discovers the Judge with Kate, the young lawyer gets the Judge to resign. Leary then wins back Milly. Two familiar performers made early career appearances in this film. Julia Faye, who was in many a C. B. DeMille picture, portrayed French Kate. She can be seen in the still with Arbuckle, as the vamp. Character actor Roscoe Karns portrayed Sam Perkins, a character who did not appear in any synopsis I read. He can be seen with Arbuckle in this still: The still below, with Arbuckle, could not be placed in context: Wid’s Daily praised the film, writing “the situations afford good opportunities particularly suited to Arbuckle’s personality, and he never missed a chance to make good. Perhaps the biggest laugh of the picture comes when “Fatty” as a lawyer who only pretends to be busy, is smitten with a pretty face in such a bad way that he sinks into a swivel chair near a window, the chair includes backward and the hero turns a somersault out the window with the next flash showing him hanging on the ledge for life.” Motion Picture News remarked that the film “certainly gets over with some sure-fire hokum and incident. … This type of picture is just the thing for Arbuckle.” The Moving Picture World wrote that the film was “a gem of its kind, suited to all audiences, high and low, inasmuch as it is pure entertainment of the finest quality.” At the Rex Theatre in Spartanburg, South Carolina, manager C. L. Henry gave free admission to any patron who weighed more than 225 pounds. He set up scale in the lobby, and crowds gathered to watch some of the town’s heaviest inhabitants seek to gain free entry. A similar stunt was pulled at the Amusu Theatre in Elmira, New York. Manager H. L. Walter, noting that Arbuckle weighed around 300 pounds, put out an announcement which read “Fatty is big hearted enough to allow you the additional handicap of keeping on clothes, while he weighed stripped. No, you can't see him. You’ll have to take his word for it. No bricks or window weights in the pockets will be allowed. Get on the scales at the Amusu or at any Arbuckle weighing station this week.” To increase patrons’ chances of winning, Walter gave men an extra allowance of 50 pounds and women an allowance of 100 pounds.

What? You don't like the scene where Claude Rains tells the old lady how wrong she is about everything and explains that psychiatric hospitals don't have to be like Olivia D'Haviland's "Snake Pit"? You don't enjoy hating that awful niece? You don't gasp when the newly made over and glamourous Bette Davis walks down the steps on the ship in that fabulous outfit? You don't cry when she cries over the perfume gift from Paul Henreid? You don't like the romantic scene in the cabin in the mountains after their car breaks down? You don't cheer for her when she gets home and stands up to her mother? You don't love the shared cigarette moments with Henreid? You don't speak the final. "Why ask for the Moon?" lines along with them? Sigh. My favorite film after Olive Higgins Prouty's other classic "Stella Dallas." (But I can see why you might hate them.) 😉

Captain Blood (1924)

For years, he was one of the notable actors who had never received an Academy Award nomination. Then he wound up with three in the 2010s -- all in the Best Supporting Actor category. His 2012 acceptance speech for "Beginners" is one of my all-time favorites.

Only he can quote Shakespeare in the original Klingon.

Mother Wore Tights (1947)

You mean you couldn't get into a story about an Austrian captain who has a tawdry fling with his kids' nanny, causing a jilted baroness to resort to murder? If Arnold Schwarzenegger ever does a remake, maybe you will finally see what you've been missing.

there is a large printed illustration of EVERY COSTUME BETTE WEARS IN NOW, VOYAGER, the above is only part of it, i cannot find the entire image to post. you can order a copy on amazon (i think)

The first step is admitting you have a problem. I have placed a hold for The Sound of Music at the library. The second step will be actually watching the movie.

We can refer you to some sort of classic film rehab, where they can guide you through all the necessary recovery steps. In fact the TCM message board is often one's first form of movie-related therapy.

It's a filmed adaption of the stage play for which Plummer won a Tony.

😁 Sullivan's Travels (completely arrow-less) next--fireworks

Plummer splendidy captured the self destructive complexies of John Barrymore. There is a moment in the film version in which Plummer portrays the actor having a moment of painful self awareness of the life and talent that he had thrown away, and there was no going back. "Oh God, what have I done?" Plummer says lying on the floor with tears in his eyes. There is no one he can turn to for comfort. A few seconds later, now recovered, he is bellowing and once again playing the drunken fool. Far better to bellow than to stop and think what you've done to yourself. Christopher Plummer made me cry when I saw that scene.

And ironically(and a bit sad) that somebody on these boards bid him adieu by calling him Captain Von Trapp. A role he long regretted doing and never liked at all. Remember his referring to the movie as "The Sound Of Mucous"? I still do. Sepiatone

I am sure he realized it was inevitable that he would be remembered for Sound of Music and that probably made him more than a little crazy.

When looking at some of these actors, it's tough not to compare them. For instance, when I compare Bettger with Widmark and Duryea, I see how one may be more effective than the others. Dan Duryea always does a fine job but he can't resist making his characters smarmy. Richard Widmark annoys me half the time because he tends to think playing evil means throwing in homoerotic vibes, which is what a lot of method actors like to do, and it isn't exactly necessary at times. But Lyle Bettger plays his villainous roles without resorting to those kinds of tricks. As you say, he's very much in control of the characterization. The other thing Bettger has going for him is that he looks like an All-American football jock, someone everyone would love to know...and when we find out that underneath his winning facade, there is a dangerous or heartless man, it makes his performance even more devastating.

I LOL every time I see that scene. What Dr could say, "She's seriously ill, thanks to you. If you had deliberately planned to destroy your daughter's life, you couldn't have done it more completely."? Man, Jacquith would be sued in a second in today's world. It's really a shame people can't be blunt & to the point, but have to worry about everyone's "feelings". It's created an atmosphere of taking no personal responsibility but blaming others instead.

Sunday, February 7 10 a.m. The Killer That Stalked New York (1950). Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley in case you missed it at midnight.

I'm late to the party, but I am utterly disgusted with the change they've made and the formatting of the Monthly Schedule --- for *many* reasons! I agree with all you have mentioned, TopBilled. The way it used to be I could copy & paste it into a spreadsheet --- do my excel magic --- and keep my own format (relational dbase) and use it to do a lookup in my database of films I own or have seen, allowing me to focus on movies I haven't seen. They actually did change the formatting back a couple of years ago which rendered my excel macros/formulae/algorithms useless ... so I created new procedures/formulae to accomplish the task ... couldn't create a macro in this case, so it took longer - bu I managed. But now ... this is infuriating. They don't use an actual date format or time format ... so for instance the time doesn't know if it's AM or PM ... because they use text formatting and the "AM/PM" is on a separate line. They also cut off the description with ellipses. They also now have the LENGTH of the film in (once again TEXT) hour and minutes ex: 1h 9m instead of total minutes they used to use (in this example would be 69 mins) . ALSO they have the Title with articles (The, A) at the beginning of the string example: "The Food of the Gods" rather than "Food of the Gods, The" which doesn't work for my lookup, so I must run a replacement formula for that as well. Also, they don't update shorts as the month progresses, as it used to do. Often I'm more interested in some of the shorts (especially 'Our Gang') than the films. Unfortunately I can't set up my DVR for shorts they don't list! (And honestly, as much time as I spend on TCM, I certainly can't keep it on 24/7 to 'watch' for a short to turn up.). ALSO .... a bit off topic but SCHEDULING has also become all fouled up since around the same time they changed the schedule. For instance, the Saturday morning cartoons ... for the first couple of weeks each month have been listed as "To Be Announced". Problem with this is now my DVR thinks it is a series, so I cannot move those items to my playlist -- which is such an orderly way to group similar genres ... so let's say the Grandkids come over (not since COVID, but hopefully sometime in the future) but when they come over I can go to the playlist to play suitable films for them ... and you'd be surprised at what a kick they get out of those old cartoons! It could be that the appreciate the better quality along with the zany humor. (I mean these animated films actually have realistic-looking animals (not picasso-style facsimiles)!! What a concept! (okay, they talk, but what the hey) ha ha!) So there are my gripes. It goes without saying that it would be nice to have a way to contact TCM with issues like these ... or even suggestions, but nah ... none of that. I sware, a lot of things have gone down hill since Bob Osborne passed (man do I miss him!!). Instead of the Now Playing coming in the mail, now it's the email version which is something, I suppose, but just not the same ... and really, how do you work the crossword puzzle ... it's not inter-active. Well, I am a cup-half-full person, so I have hope that someone at TCM scans these message boards for feedback and they will hear our voices!

Fisher, Carrie

1933

KINDERGARTEN COP (1990)

Marjoey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo Gortner.

Frank, rather fascinating article about Christopher Plummer. Love how he admits that he was kind of a jerk in the 60's/70's and finally got his act together. Very talented guy in any era. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9229237/Christopher-Plummer-dies-aged-91.html

SHANE (1953)

Southern, Ann

Murder By Contract Next: Invalid

Love Me or Leave Me

It was only a few years ago that I saw Christopher Plummer in "Barrymore". For the first time I felt I actually understood John Barrymore's life and the genius of his acting, which could only have been portrayed by another actor of equal genius. My only regret is that I couldn't have seen Christopher Plummer do that role on stage.

He also has a weird, but important, role In the odd 1987 big screen comic version of DRAGNET as a California evangelist/secret cultist.

I was a big fan of Richard Long when he was on "Bourbon Street Beat". I was particularly impressed with his wife, Mara Corday. She was so beautiful and so were their children. By this time she had retired, and I had no idea she'd been an actress. Richard Long died in 1974. After his death Mara came back to acting in 1977 at the behest of a good friend, Clint Eastwood. She went on to appear in four Eastwood films including "Sudden Impact".

Canada's news channels have been devoting long tribute segments to Christopher Plummer concentrating on his stage accomplishments. It is said that he came to terms with the popularity of The Sound of Music when he became older but thought the part was pretty limited in scope.

Not just that, but he should have been nominated for THE INSIDER and NICHOLAS NICKLEBY before he got those three late in life nods. I also remember how *very much* in the wilderness he found himself in the 1980s, he really appeared in some absolutely terrible films (That’s not saying anything against him mind you, he was a SPLENDID ACTOR who *always* managed to be good, he just appeared in a span of *really* terrible films in order to pay the bills.) anyone recall FIREHEAD or VAMPIRE IN VENICE?

KITTY (1945)

THE STORY OF LOUIS PASTEUR (1936)

I saw him on Broadway as Macbeth in 1988, one of my greatest theater experiences.

Marilyn Maxwell

THIS IS ALSO NOT A SPOILER, BECAUSE IT HAPPENS IN THE FIRST TEN MINUTES OF THE MOVIE [FOOD OF THE GODS] MARJOE GORTNER also plays A PROFESSIONAL NFL FOOTBALL PLAYER [which is also RIDICULOUS ON EVERY LEVEL] who leaves the island of the giant animals AFTER his teammate is stung to death by giant wasps TO ATTEND A MID-WINTER PRACTICE GAME IN HIS HOME CITY, then returns to the island a week later persuading his friend, THE TEAM MANAGER to return with him to where their friend met a horrible death JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT. I'm having flashbacks.

it's really telling about the appeal of MARJOE GORTNER that the EARLIER discussion of his film career became 95% about VICTORIA PRINCIPAL'S AFRO IN EARTHQUAKE after about three lines. "spoiler" in re: FOOD OF THE GODS, but not really- when the house they are in is under siege by the deadly splitscreen of "giant" pet rats, PAMELA FRANKLIN turns to MARJOE GORTNER and, in one of the most ludicrous things I have ever seen committed to film she tells MARJOE GORTNER [PICTURED BELOW] that she wants him to make love to her. In a movie with a lot of GALLINGLY UNBELIEVABLE MOMENTS, this one comes close to taking the GOLD. he has all the sex appeal of a "young" DON IMUS.

You can see the schedule better here☺️ https://www.tcm.com/31days

Kiss of Death Miracle on 34th Street Marty David and Lisa Goldfinger Wild Strawberries Ed Wood Nashville Lust for Life The Wild Bunch

Saturday, February 6/7 1:45 a.m. Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Good Sidney Lumet film with Al Pacino, Charles Durning and the late great, John Cazale.

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT (1999)