Members

Thanks for starting a thread, I've been in conferences all day. It looks like my schedule flipped on its own without any issue this time.

Marple, Jane, played by Angela Lansbury in "The Mirror Cracked"

Lord, Tracy played by Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story 1940.

teen angst at the malt shop in Freddie Steps Out (1946) Fred Astaire, dancing on the ceiling Do the Freddie from Troop Beverly Hills

J.K. Simmons is a great actor (even on the insurance commercials). You take a role, you might be the lead or just another player (like he was in La La Land). Many of the characters on Cheers (Lillith - hope she comes to Frasier revival) and Frasier were great. George Wendt as Norm and Cliff Clavin and his infamous appearance on Jeopardy. On Cheers, Harry Anderson played a con artist. When he became the star of Night Court, we had John Laroquette among others (also Selma Diamond). And how could I forget Carla and her ex (Dan Hedaya has played so many roles in movies (First Wives Club) and TV (several episodes of Blue Bloods)

Drop Dead Fred (1991)

From February 27 – March 5, 1921, the Poli ran The Kid, starring Charlie Chaplin, Jackie Coogan, and Edna Purviance. The film was released in February of 1921, and is available on YouTube, running around 68 minutes. Brief Plot: A single mother (Purviance) places her infant son in a car, with a note hoping someone will care for him. The car is stolen, and when the thieves discover the baby, they leave him in an alley. Along comes a tramp (Chaplin) who discovers the child and tries to hand him off, to no avail. He then takes him in, and five years later, the kid (Coogan) and the tramp have a nice racket going, with the kid throwing stones through windows and the tramp conveniently showing up to get the job fixing the glass. Meanwhile, the mother has become a famous singer, and does charity work around the tramp’s neighborhood. Will she eventually figure out the kid’s identity? (Hint: of course.) Review: I haven’t seen all of Chaplin’s features, but this is certainly the best of those I have seen. While there are plenty of amusing scenes, it is the serious ones that carry the film. The scene in which the kid is taken from Chaplin is one of the most heartbreaking ever filmed. Chaplin shows rage combined with fear, in a rare showing of his dramatic ability, and Coogan is absolutely wonderful, sobbing real tears as he is separated from his “pal.” Purviance is lovely as always. In a dream sequence, Charlie is tempted by the Devil (played by Jackie Coogan Sr.) and a vamp (Lita Grey). Since Chaplin married Grey a few years later, perhaps he had a delayed reaction to her “seduction.” A charming film, this gem is not to be missed.

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943)

The great English actor Ronald Pickup has died. A prolific presence on stage, television, and in movies, Pickup was 80 years ago. I had the good fortune to see him on stage and also remember him as the annoying but lovable Prince Yakimov in the TV miniseries The Fortunes of War. I believe the first time I saw him onstage was at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, as Astrov in Uncle Vanya, with Donald Sinden as Vanya. The last time I saw him on stage was in his Olivier Award-winning performance at the National Theatre, in Amy's View. His films include The Day of the Jackal and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and many others, but those represent only a fraction of his diverse and distinguished career. Ronald Pickup in The Fortunes of War https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/feb/26/ronald-pickup-a-theatrical-great-from-a-golden-generation

Okay, I know this topic sounds a bit creepy. But when I was starting college in the early 90s, I had gone to live with my mother's sister and my grandparents (they had two homes next door to each other and I divided my time between both places when I wasn't on campus studying). You could say this is where I developed my love for classic film, because my grandparents watched American Movie Classics every night-- after Wheel of Fortune. LOL And I soon switched my major to film and television. My aunt was a bit peculiar (that's putting it nicely) and she liked to say in front of my grandparents "all those people are dead now." Referring to the actors on screen in a particular scene. She was usually correct, if it was a movie from the 1930s and all the performers were in fact deceased. Though of course she couldn't be sure if the extras in the background were dead or still alive. One film she could never say this about was GONE WITH THE WIND since Olivia de Havilland lived for a million years. I guess I wanted to start this thread in honor of my aunt who died a year ago. She joined all those people that still live on. Question: does it ever cross your mind that you are watching film as history and part of our way of life is no longer around? Or does it not matter to you? Sometimes I think about what happened to all those people on screen. Like how they lived the rest of their lives and how they died.

The Stuff they got for May should have been for 31 Days Of Oscar; Chaplin ('92), Precious ('09), The Last Emperor ('87) and many more. Also TCM Film Festival is scheduled in May, but films haven't been picked yet, so ignore the TBA shots for now.

I just finished a wonderful 20 page article in Spring 2020's issue of FILMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE about great actresss Jackie Joseph. She laments at the end of the interview she was never really a big star, but she continually worked throughout her career in varied TV & movie roles. Sure, she was in LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, GREMLINS & CHEYENNE SOCIAL CLUB but you'll spot her in KING CREOLE too, with Elvis singing to her in a scene. She was a standout in guest roles on Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke and was a regular on Doris Day's TV show. Even when you didn't see her, you recognized her voice, as in Josie & The Pussycats' Melody charactor. Here's a hard working lady with tons of talent - she could act, do comedy, sing, dance, everything. Even though she thinks of herself as a "charactor" actor, to me, she's a STAR & still just as cute as ever: Are there still great unsung charactor actors like the golden studio age of Hollywood? (oops sorry, charactEr)

Alicia, Ana

Fred Mertz Freddie Mercury ONCE UPON A MATTRESS -- Carol Burnett's character was Winifred aka "Fred", so the Prince sang a song: "I'm in love with a girl named Fred" (seen here in this clip)

1945

Patucci, Tony - Charles Laughton in They Knew What They Wanted

For Heaven's Sake (1950)

North, Pamela -- played by Grace Allen in MR. AND MRS. NORTH (1942)

AUTUMN LEAVES (1956)

Try: https://www.moviecollectoroh.com/nightly/sched.htm Scroll down to the last section.

Witherspoon, Reese

Jlewis: Funny how certain movies remind me of other movies that have little in common with each other apart from a few plot details. Multiple characters, including a good doctor and his patients, receive ominous “scarlet pen” letters with a hand drawn feather included. For some strange reason, I instantly thought of THE FOUR FEATHERS, most notably Zoltan and Alexander Korda’s glossy Technicolor 1939 version (out of several based on that book), in which feathers are enclosed as a symbol of being a coward during war time. I was not clear what they meant in the context of this movie at first. The letters, as a whole, cause trouble for several people with some sort of I-know-what-you-did revelation. One recipient, an unseen Mr. Gauthier, is even driven to suicide. Michael Rennie (Klaatu in THE EARTH STOOD STILL) plays the good doctor Pearson, whose letter warns him to stop his “affair. Though he doesn’t seem to be having any despite him raising the temperatures of lady patients like Linda Darnell’s Denise (who ultimately gets him in the end) and Constance Smith’s Cora Laurient, who is married to Pearson’s older mentor Dr. Paul, played by Charles Boyer. Other cast members include Judith Evelyn as the “good” nurse Sister Marie Cohen who may not always be good and June Hedin as ornery teenager Rochelle. I have to make special note of Françoise Rosay making the most of her supporting role as Mrs. Gauthier; she was a veteran of the French cinema since 1911. Speaking of the French, this is a remake of LE CORBEAU (THE RAVEN), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot in 1943 while the nation was under Nazi occupation. A definite French atmosphere is reflected here in the bilingual town of St. Hilaire in Quebec that poses as our background setting. Plus we get Boyer and Rosay in the cast. Interesting to me the number of church scenes here. The residents of this community receiving scarlet letters are all worried about cleansing their souls. The ominous letter writer “does not respect the church” (per discussions) by sending them into the air during a mass being held. This is a pretty good who-done-it with a you-will-never-guess-the-outcome, but it has unfortunately fallen through the cracks over the decades. One reason may be its modest production values, compared to the more ambitious LAURA and other classics that the same director, Otto Preminger, and cinematographer, Joseph LaShelle, collaborated on. In a way, it may share too much in common with other films of its particular genre and, therefore, is easily forgotten by most average viewers including those who enjoy it like me. Sometimes a movie can be too slick and professionally done for its own good. Alex North’s subdued score isn’t as memorable here as in other films he worked on. Most entertaining for me is Howard Koch’s dialogue, particularly coming from Charles Boyer’s Paul, touting whiskers that make him resemble an elderly Edward G. Robinson at times. (Koch, by the way, also worked on THE LETTER that we previously profiled.) When Paul swings a lamp and tells Pearson about the nature of light versus dark and asks “how can we be sure where one side begins and one ends?,” Pearson replies that all one needs to do is stop swinging the lamp. Without spoiling anything, it does stop swinging…

Essential: THE 13TH LETTER (1951) TopBilled: THE 13TH LETTER is a very moody, atmospheric remake shot on location in Quebec, though one gets the feeling a lot was lost in translation from the original French picture. Reviews of the earlier film say it offers a biting social commentary, but this film seems to shy away from that. Instead, 20th Century Fox director Otto Preminger has focused on the more entertaining elements of a man’s life unraveling because of adultery. It has hardly anything to do with society at large, unless the suggestion is that all society’s upstanding citizens are perverse in some way. The casting of THE 13TH LETTER is somewhat intriguing if not problematic. Charles Boyer is perfectly suited to the role of Dr. Laurent. But as much as one enjoys Michael Rennie, he’s a little too British to be believed as an immigrant who has lived in Quebec for any length of time. Undoubtedly, there are British immigrants in Canada; but an American actor like Gregory Peck could just as easily have filled the role, since there are Americans in Canada, too. Even more out of place is Irish-born Constance Smith chosen as Boyer’s wife. When Rennie and Smith have scenes together, it feels even less like a story about French Canadians. Was it that Preminger wanted to cast the picture with the very best actors under contract, and most of those performers happen to hail from Europe? Why not cast the roles more authentically with Canadian actors, or at least hire gorgeous Micheline Presle as Cora Laurent. Or perhaps Danielle Darrieux, and with such casting allow Boyer to speak more French with his on screen wife. The one role, after Boyer’s, that is cast well belongs to Francoise Rosay as Mrs. Gauthier. In the hands of a lesser talent, the part of the vengeful townswoman would have been wasted. Rosay’s character, more than any other, drives the narrative forward. For it is her quest, along with ours, that aims to get to the bottom of the poisonous letter writing campaign. Who has exposed passions and stirred up a hornet’s nest of trouble in the local village..? Finally, there is Linda Darnell as Denise Turner, a bedridden woman who may or may not be a true invalid. Darnell is once more playing a devious-minded female, this time trying to get her hooks into the doctor played by Rennie. Though the film is technically a noir, Darnell is not exactly playing a femme fatale, because on some level the character’s disabilities will engender sympathy from the viewer. Darnell and Rennie certainly generate sparks, but Preminger does not always photograph Darnell like he should. In this film, she sinks into a rather large bed and only when the director chooses to give her the obligatory close-up do we see some life radiating from under the covers. Because of Darnell’s apparent unimportance to Preminger’s cinematic world, she becomes a specialized but muted ensemble player. One would never know that she has received top billing from the studio for this picture if they were to tune in after the opening credits.

Fred McMurray movies and his TV Show, My Three Sons. Fredric March movies

When I lived in Rochester NY, I worked for a fresh fish market as a teen (Capone's, it must have been a front) and it was MY JOB to clean the squid-no one else would do it. It was delivered fresh every week and would be completely sold out within 2-3 days. Fresh fish only has a shelf life of a few days before deteriorating.

Ball of Fire Next: getting lost

The Prisoner

Goldblum, Jeff

Firth, Colin

MIDNIGHT MARY (1933)

8.) Music for the movie was composed by Andre Previn.

Graham, Ellen, played by Veronica Lake in "This Gun for Hire"

Ned and Stacey

My So-Called Life

Reynolds, Burt

THE MODEL AND THE MARRIAGE BROKER (1951)

The Gingerbread Man (1998) -- 7/10 The Gingerbread Man is one of those rare examples of a film that has a subpar story given a little extra ooomph by a talented cast and crew, but ultimately the story traps them in the end. This was a notoriously troubled production, with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment trying and failing to override Robert Altman's version of the film. And ultimately, the film, originally supposed to be released in late 1997, was pushed into the hinterlands of January 1998, post the release of Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, another steamy tale in Savannah that was actually filmed just after this one. And since the studio was livid over their fight with Altman, the expensive film (Altman's most expensive film of his entire career) was barely released. So, in the aftermath of all this rubble, what can be found? Well, the story itself is lacking. Even if some of the details might be surprising, its a pretty easy tale to figure out where its going since it follows the basic noir/neo-noir prototypes where things are not what they seem to be on the surface, people are sneakier than they let on, and there is a red herring prominently in place to lead you the wrong way. But I feel that most of these problems were inherant in the john Grisham story, and one knows from the director's commentary on the disc that Altman greatly reworked the first half of the story, and that the cast members also contributed to changing it. IMDb even claims that David Mamet did some script doctoring on this one. The result of all this doctoring is that the film starts blazingly well. The cast is pretty well chosen across the board, especially the eternally underrated Embeth Davidtz, who underplays to fine effect. Kenneth Branagh has an ideal Southern accent. Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr chew the scenery entertainingly, and Daryl Hannah completely melts into the role of a loyal, honest secretary so well that you have to remind yourself at times that it's her. The atmosphere (Savannah, just before a hurricane comes roaring through) is thick and rich as gumbo. But then about halfway through, around the time that Branagh pulls his children from school to protect them, the basic wheels of the formula plot take over and start to deflate all the hard work made to juice this thing up. It never regains its footing, and begins to feel like a waste of Altman and everyone else. But that first act showed that there was real ingenuity and crackling minds working on this, which makes it a cut above a routine thriller, a bit more honest and knowing. But ultimately, it must rate as a near miss, despite all the best efforts and intentions.

Odds Against Tomorrow, Noir, then and Now Then (1958-9) - New York Central RS-3 Alco Diesel Switcher rolling North through the 7th & Warren St. intersection, Hudson, NY Now, I took this December 21, 2018 a CXS SD40-2 (EMD) going South through same intersection. they removed the stop lights, rail road crossing gates, and the old bus terminal is a store but everything else is essentially the same.

Just watched PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (1974) when I was a teenager in the 1990s, this showed up quite a bit on Cinemax, I did not particularly like it, but it was an impactful film and I remembered much of it over the years. It gets some bonus points for working FAUST in to the standard LEROUX story remodeled as a GLAM ROCK FABLE and adding a supernatural element as well... I guess one can only wonder what the result would have been had they cast someone besides PAUL WILLIAMS In what is more or less the lead role as the chief antagonist and villain who is supposed to be sexually irresistable, Intimidating, charismatic, diabolical and threatening. PAUL WILLIAMS Looks at all times in this film like Truman Capote dressing up as Martina Navratilova for Halloween and is about as intimidating as Audrey Hepburn. the music is not memorable either. When BEEF dies, a very special light goes out in this movie.

Ringo Starr dancing with Elizabeth Taylor

yes, he plays the driving instructor and it is, possibly, the funniest scene in the whole movie.

Another Woman (1988) HBO On Demand 8/10 A middle aged woman (Gena Rowlands) rents an apartment in order to write a book, the apartment next door is a psychiatrist's office and she can overhear the sessions with another woman (Mia Farrow). The second drama in a row for director Woody Allen. It is much better than the last , September. I had seen this one before, yet it felt like the first time when I re watched it last night. Allen often talks of Ingmar Bergman as his favorite filmmaker, and this the most Bergmanesque of his films that I have seen. There are great dream sequences and striking cinematography by Sven Nykvist. Gene Hackman has a small role as a man who wants to have an affair with Rowlands. John Houseman (in his final film) plays Rowlands' father. In a flashback scene his character is played by David Ogden Stiers. I was struck by how similar they were, never noticed it before. One more treat for me was seeing a pregnant Mia Farrow, mainly because Rosemary's Baby is one of my favorite films of all time. And there is beautiful orchestrations of music by French composer Erik Satie.

Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini

(dislikes this message)

Webster

Mr. and Mrs. North

I WISH tcm would air Man of a Thousand Faces James Chaney was great as Lon Chaney.

PYGMALION (1938) Next: lots of screen time for Bruce Willis

"Nightmare City" (1980) also known as "City of the Walking Dead" director Umberto Lenzi insists that his monsters are not zombies but humans that have gone mad because of exposure to radioactive waste. They are fast moving and very organized homicidal maniacs who kill everyone from soldiers to doctors to aerobic dancers in the movies most outrageous scene. This is fast paced sci-fi horror with some ridiculous moments but other shock sequences that are very effective- it's out on Blu Ray from Arrow Video with some excellent extras