Members

D.O.A. (1949) Famous noir about a small time businessman, on vacation in Frisco, who is slipped a lethal slow acting poison in a drink and sets about, in the few days left to him, to find his own murderer. It's an intriguing story idea and if the plot eventually becomes hopelessly complex, the film more than compensates for that with Rudolph Mate's assured direction, great black and white photography and the on location shooting in San Francisco and Los Angeles, with a climax set in the famous Bradley Building. The performances are effective if, admittedly, a little less than subtle at times. Edmond O'Brien is fun to watch as the dying man with an increasingly overwrought performance. Playing a character who has nothing to lose O'Brien blusters his way into rooms, grabs people, barks questions at them, gets shot at then charges recklessly forward, gun in hand, irregardless of any physical harm to himself. One of the best scenes in the film is O'Brien's reaction to the confirmation that he has been given a lethal "luminous poison" when he frantically runs through Frisco streets, finally stopping by a news stand which has Life Magazine prominently on display. Okay, not exactly subtle but I like the touch anyway. Pamela Britton scores well as O'Brien's secretary/girlfriend eager to get married, as does Luther Adler in his brief role as a shady character. In one of his first film roles Neville Brand is a hoot as a psychopathic hood who loves punching O'Brien in the belly and looks forward to doing a lot more than that to him. Dimitri Tiomkin contributes a highly charged dramatic musical score, particularly impressive under the film's opening titles when O'Brien walks into a police station. Surprisingly misguided, however (and I don't know that it was Tiomkin's idea) are some silly musical chords depicting wolf whistles in an early scene whenever O'Brien sees a number of attractive women. 3 out of 4

Spaceballs -- Would "combing the desert" count as a journey?

The Lost Patrol (1934)

Road to Morocco Greed The English Patient

Oh, I think that image is of Eddie alright, midwestern. Having said that I think he is clearly doubled in a few of the film's action scenes (par for the course, of course). One of them is in that terrific scene in which you see him frantically running through a Frisco street after he gets the news he's dying. It's really O'Brien doing the initial running because we can see his face, but there is a prolonged shot, as well, of his back as he runs and I'd bet big bucks that's not the actor. Even in the film's opening under the credits (with Dimitri Tiomkin's music dramatically accompanying him on the soundtrack) with O'Brien arriving at the police station we are denied seeing his face. I strongly wonder if that is actually Edmond O'Brien under those opening credits. By the way, Neville Brand, such a great psycho in the film, won numerous medals including the Silver Star and Purple Heart, for his bravery as an army sergeant and platoon leader during the Central European campaign of WWII.

Yes, I neglected to mention The Fisherman club where we see the jazz musicians playing in D.O.A. a very atmospheric, excitingly directed and edited sequence. And you also, very briefly, get to see a very young Hugh O'Brien there (before he strapped on his Wyatt Earp guns) as a jazz aficianado really into the music. Ever wonder how many Hollywood films show the trademark Coca Cola name? I don't know if it's still available but I have a DVD of the film released by Image Entertainment years ago that has a very nice contrasting image, with only one ten second or so moment that looks like it used a cut from a washed out l6mm print. There are also a couple of scratches that aren't too bad.

I agree that her allure in The Lady Eve was very strong. 1941 was a great year for her with The Lady Eve, Meet John Doe, You Belong to Me, and Ball of Fire.

Spring Byington

1963

Graham, Barbara, played by Susan Hayward in "I Want to Live"

Donna Reed

Farley, Father Tim -- Jack Lemmon in Mass Appeal

Sahara (1943) Sahara (1983) The Garden of Allah (1936) Ishtar (1987) Morocco (1930)

Under Two Flags 1936 Suez 1938 Beau Geste 1939 Legend of the Lost 1957 Flight of the Phoenix 1965 Khartoum 1966 Tobruk 1967 Patton 1970 The Wind and the Lion 1975

Pat and Mike

I watched THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE last night. I read Glenn Ford's son's biography of his dad and he wrote that he was playing "Rock Around the Clock" at home the day director Richard Brooks was visiting his dad to discuss the movie, heard the song for the first time and decided that it was the song he would use to open and close the movie. Apparently this lit a fire under the song and led to it becoming the first rock and roll song to make it to #1 on the Billboard charts. The rest was history. OK...I guess. Honestly, to me, it was the only reason to watch the movie. For 1954, this was suppose to be a gritty, urban drama of high school delinquency. Ha! If they were such hooligans why did they go to school every day? I did like Richard Kiley's role as a put upon, passive teacher. It was a little different from the roles I usually associate with him. Jamie Farr, famous for playing Klinger in MASH played one of the students and he was the biggest kid in the class. All I could think was that Vic Morrow must have been a small guy as Farr dwarfed him in size. So did Poitier. Almost all the students looked way too old to be high schoolers.....sort of James Deanish in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. Glenn Ford was way too earnest and the relationship with Sidney Poitier's student character seemed exceptionally contrived to me. The ending was slam, bam, thank you ma'am over. I guess I'd recommend it only for it's historical perspective. That's about it.

I see Harrigan, and Travers, but where is lead actor Claude Rains!!!! This poster is all messed up!!! Who can I call to make a complaint!! Oh, wait,,,, never mind.

You're so right about condition issues. I had resisted mentioning Frenchman's Creek (1944) because TCM has shown it in the past, but always in a relatively faded print of what must have been a glorious Technicolor film. Universal Vault has released it to DVD, but from what I hear it's still the substandard, faded print. Ray, does the fact that Universal has "custody" of the pre-48 Paramount films mean that they have the negatives to do restorations, or do they just have prints?

THE DETECTIVE (1968)

I love Frances Dee! I always find her acting less stylized than other actresses in the 1930's. She was as gracious as Bette Davis was selfish in OF HUMAN BONDAGE. I'm not really a fan of the Cukor version of LITTLE WOMEN, but I think Dee and Paul Lukas are great in it. Other films of Dee's I really like are THE SILVER CORD (also with McCrea), BECKY SHARP, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and IF I WERE KING. Lovely gal.

The so-called Peacock Premium (for which there's a fee) does have ads, but you get more content (for example I think you can get all episodes of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE ) and can stream current NBC shows the next day after they air. They have something called Premium Plus (for a higher fee) , which is ad-free. The free version is enough for me. I can deal with the ads. Peacock does have all seasons of SAVED BY THE BELL, which is my comfort show during troubled times. My "cheese" to borrow from LornaHansonForbes. For awhile the final season went away, which bothered me. Yes, this is the season with the Tori episodes, but being a completist I wanted all episodes available. The final season is now back on Peacock. What they're calling Season 1 is actually the re-packaged GOOD MORNING, MISS BLISS episodes as they were shown in syndication on TBS and other stations.

Nanook of the North (1922)

Border River 1954 next: River of No Return 1954

He did make an impact on jazz. A fine musician.

What hooked me on Stanwyck was this scene from The Lady Eve. Just a great combination of wit, sass, and beauty. One of the most versatile actresses with first rate performances in almost every genre.

Pierce Brosnan Mel Brooks

THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA (1937)

ROGUE COP

Toast? If that is to your taste... I am more interested in April 2nd which is: Peanut Butter and Jelly Day!

RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS (1932)

THE UGLY DACHSUND (1966)

TEXAS 1941

I'd like to see this one again. I don't care for the song, though Jeff Beck and David Gilmour have both said the guitar break in it, played by Franny Beecher, was inspiring to them. Anne Francis is always fun to watch, and here she is less worldy-wise than in later roles. I always remember Julie Adams as the female teacher, but it is Margaret Hayes. I don't fault it for being a little melodramatic. There weren't many movies about delinquents then, so it probably seemed a little fresher than it does now. In fact this would be a good double bill with Jerry Lewis and The Delicate Delinquent. For contrivance though, it's hard to beat the use of the name Dadier to get to Daddy-O.

Orbach, Jerry

Didnt realize Corday was married to Richard Long.

For me - In the end it just wasn't that interesting to merit its length. And that's from a film lover.

THE TATTERED DRESS (1957)

HONEYMOON IN BALI (1939)

MY FRIEND IRMA GOES WEST (1950)

The Tori part is so confusing because they go through high school graduation twice. I'm pretty sure that Jessie and Kelly graduate with the gang, then they're gone, and Tori's there, and she graduates with the gang. Are you mourning Screech? Screech was my least favorite character, but I am sorry that he passed away.

Muppets Take Manhattan ( in Central Park) Next: riding a bike

SONG OF SCHEHERAZADE (1947)

SONG OF RUSSIA

Albright, Lola

You've been corrected before. Would you PLEASE spell Cary Grant's name correctly. It is NOT Carey, there is NO E in the spelling. We'd all appreciate it.

Tuttle, Jimmy -- Robert Cummings in Three Cheers for Love (1936)

The Rat Race(1960) Dir. Robert Mulligan starring Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds. It's about these two roughing it in NYC in the early 60s, and Debbie Reynold plays an almost PROSTITUTE! I swear it was shown years ago on TCM but hasn't been seen since. It's Paramount distributed.