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Some of these 18 films I don't have to guess as to what the problem is, but some I do. Psycho - I never considered that the film was saying that BECAUSE Norman dressed as a woman he was a murderer. In fact the scene at the end with the psychiatrist seems to explain it pretty well. He was just trying to deceive himself into believing that mom was still alive. If he had wanted to keep the memory of his dad alive he would have dressed up in his clothes. My Fair Lady - Henry Higgins is an obnoxious old bachelor who treats women badly? He seems to treat EVERYONE badly that he does not consider his equal, and that boils down to Pickering and his mother. Rope - The implication that there is a romantic involvement between the two main characters is so subtle as to be almost inperceptible. I don't see the problem with this film at all. Like TB said, Compulsion is a smidgeon more open with it, but even there I think the inclusion of the character of Ruth in the film was just to make it look like Dean Stockwell's character "liked" girls. I never thought that the film was saying that gay men can easily become fiendish criminals. Woman of the Year - Tracy's character thinks it's normal to treat his wife like he is a caveman. Hepburn's character wants to save the world but ignores every individual in her life who should be important to her. I've seen this one several times and I don't think this film is "problematic" past the time in which it was made. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - It's wrong to kidnap women and hold them until spring so you can mate with them. I think the audience gets that. I think the audience in the 1950s got that. What I never got is why Jane Powell is a married woman who doesn't seem to know where babies come from. Guess Who's Coming To Dinner - Seriously? This was made over 50 years ago and treated everybody with dignity. I've never sat all the way through lots of the others, so I can't speak to their plot points. While we're at it why don't we include every film that said "that's darn white of you" whenever one character does a favor for another??? Why not "Young Frankenstein" because somebody somewhere might think people with disabilities (Igor) have criminal tendencies and that rape victims fall in love with their rapists. Aargh. When Richard Barrios and Robert Osborne teamed up in 2007 to present "Gay Images in Film" I felt I was being educated. Lately I feel like I am being indoctrinated. But Bravo for the TCM blackface short done a year or two ago. That was very well done and educational.

All I can say is that the Zar of Noir was lucky that James Mason never hit on his wife.

I was in the mood for My Sister Eileen, but found a Rosalind Russell film I'd never seen, or even heard of...This Thing Called Love. And with Melvyn Douglas to boot! The plot is so-so, but good cast (Allyn Joslyn, Binnie Barnes, Lee J. Cobb...) and an interesting rustic/stone house that evidently made such an impression on Ronald Reagan, he used it as a model for his own home. Worth watching just for Russell and Douglas..I love finding new/old films with actors I like.

Steamboat Bill, Jr. Singin' in the Rain The Wizard of Oz Love Story

From March 6-9, 1921, the Poli ran Madonnas and Men, with Anders Randolf, Edmund Lowe, and Gustav von Seyffertitz all playing dual roles. The film was released on June 13, 1920, at eight reels. A complete copy is held in the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. Plot: In ancient Rome, Emperor Turnerius, accompanied by his son Gordion, his soothsayer Grimaldo, and his favorite dancer Nerissa, sit in the arena watching human sacrifices. One gladiator has already slain another, while Nerissa performs in the fresh blood. Now a Christian girl is about to be fed to the lions. Grimaldo holds up the proceedings and tells Gordion a story of the future. A capitalist, Marshall Turner, kidnaps Laura Grimm, the daughter of a woman who had jilted him, with the vengeful goal of marrying her and committing her to a loveless life. Gordon, Turner’s son, wants to put a stop to his father’s plan. At the moment of the wedding, the girl’s father, John Grimm, tries to stop the proceedings, but is killed by the Turner, who subsequently dies of a stroke. Then Gordon takes Laura in his arms. Back in ancient Rome, Gordion now realizes the brutality of Rome, and his interest in a better future is aroused. He jumps into the arena to save the Christian girl. Turnerius, enraged at his son’s actions, orders his guards to kill him. But Turnerius collapses before the order can be carried out. Gordian is crowned as his father’s successor. The stills below could not be placed in context. The first shows Gustav von Seyffertitz with Evan Burroughs Fontaine: The second and third show Fontaine in the modern-day story (don’t let the costume fool you), preparing for a modeling session. Kudos to the costume designer: Wid’s Daily wrote “this is one of those “yes and no” pictures. You can easily sit down and rip the whole story to shreds from start to finish, prove the drama utterly unconvincing and the characters altogether unreal. And then you can throw your frame of mind into reverse and dwell on the extravagant production values with which the picture is endowed … after the shouting is all over and the dust has cleared away, you come to the conclusion that the latter argument gets a shade the better of it.” The Moving Picture World gushed that the film was a “fascinating compound of spiritual beauty and purely sensuous charm. It is as romantic as a night dream of dark centuries long passed which takes on new meaning in the clear light of the modern day. Into this dream-like fantasy there is woven an up-to-date motive in favor of splendid womanhood.” Motion Picture News noted that the film “starts off at a mile a minute clip. They don’t even stop to introduce the characters, but just make you sit bold upright and take notice by flashing some wonderful shots of the Coliseum of Rome during a pagan holiday in the year 27 A.D. … Speaking from a standpoint of drama, it is too long, and if it were not for the elaborate production the interest would lag.” Picture-Play Magazine remarked that the film had “the identical number of holes you’d find in a large sieve. No one knows the number of holes in a sieve and no one knows the number in this story.” However, the reviewer did praise a number of scenes, and the performance of Evan Burrows Fontaine, noting “spectacular is the scene of Miss Fontaine undressing behind a translucent screen. I fear that this delightful bit will come to grief at the shears of heartless censors.” Evan Burroughs Fontaine only made three films, but stayed in the spotlight over the years. She began dancing in the mid-1910s, and according to one report, her feet were insured for $10,000. She performed on Broadway and in the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1922, she filed a paternity suit against playboy Cornelius “Sonny” Vanderbilt Whitney, claiming he was the father of her child. She also claimed that the couple would have been married save for the interference of Whitney’s mother, who felt Fontaine was from a lower class. “Really, I can’t see how Mrs. Whitney can object,” Fontaine fired back. “Sonny’s great grandfather and her grandfather was a ferry boatman and his wife was a tavernkeeper at New Brunswick, New Jersey. Is there any reason why I, with the illustrious Patrick Henry and the famous John C. Calhoun as my ancestors, should acknowledge the social superiority of a family descended from a boatman with a tavernkeeper wife?” Things got even messier when Fontaine, who was married to a sailor at the time, claimed her marriage had been annulled. But a judge ruled the annulment had been obtained by fraud. Meanwhile, Whitney got married and headed for a honeymoon in France (that marriage didn’t last). The paternity suit was dismissed. Two years later, Fontaine tried to sue again, and again the case was dismissed. In 1932, Philadelphia police raided the Friars Club, which was used as a speakeasy. Several people were arrested, including a female entertainer who gave her name as “Mary Thompson.” Thompson turned out to be Evan Burroughs Fontaine. She was held on $500 bail. Despite all these scandals, Fontaine kept working. In 1934, she performed at the Hotel Walt Whitman in New Jersey, to celebrate Franklin Roosevelt’s 52nd birthday, and to raise money for infantile paralysis. Her son Neil became a bandleader, and reportedly passed a screen test for United Artists. However, I could not discover if he ever made any films.

Johnny Guitar

I am almost done with ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968); I think I have only seen it once before and that was ca. 1995, right after I read the book, which many of you probably know is just about exactly like the movie down to uncanny detail. I did not like either particularly at the time, all these years later though, I can appreciate the mechanics of the movie and I can see why it was/is so popular. nonetheless, at the end of the day, this film is pretty much wasted on me, I was born in 1978; I grew up watching even sicker more twisted stuff and I was raised Episcopalian, and we really don't get into The Devil much at all (sadly, I might add), so my view of THE DARK ONE is quite different from people who were raised BY STAUNCH CATHOLICS or BAPTISTS or any of the other religions that LONG AGO LEARNED that if you want to put some BUTTS in the seats, you HAVE TO TALK ABOUT FUN STUFF LIKE THE DEVIL EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY! I also have the standard-model Gay pitch black sense of humor combined with the standard-model Gay FULL-ON EMBRACE OF THE UNUSUAL AND MACABRE, so I find this film to be- like THE WICKER MAN- something of a DARK comedy, or at least tottering on the brink of it at almost all times. Plus, being filmed at THE DAKOTA, the YOKO ONO JOKES just write themselves (as they always do.) At the end of the day, I am at something of a loss as to why RUTH GORDON won supporting actress for this; and yet, at times, I get it. she looked great though: I really think that the best performance in the film is from JOHN CASSAVETTES though.

LOST HORIZON THE GOLD RUSH MARCH OF THE PENGUINS KEY LARGO (the natives are left outside during the hurricane)

Death of a Scoundrel Next: Rory Calhoun, Yvonne DeCarlo, Mara Corday

True. And yet the movie is a magnificent piece of filmmaking. That film, along with "The Wizard of Oz" - which is NOTHING like the book by the way - showed what Hollywood could do at the height of the power of the studio system in 1939. And just ten years after the transition to sound. It's all pretty amazing when you think about it. If the South had won the war the French were prepared to attack the South coming up through Mexico. The British wanted the north back. But then that's another story. What I always think about when I watch GWTW is how you never know what holds people together and how some people just never realize what they have until it's gone. Plus it very realistically shows the horrors of war.

Muller kept claiming that Landau hit on his wife at some party. I don't even know why TCM kept that in the after movie discussion. Rather than repeatedly lambasting the now deceased old geezer, Muller should see the silver lining in his attraction. Anyway, Martin Landau died in 2017 and after over three years Muller decides to unleash on Landau on national tv. As bad as Landau's behavior may or may not have been, I thought Muller's diatribe was untoward and highly inappropriate for TCM to televise. Took the joy out of watching North by Northwest again. NBNW is one of my favorite movies.

It was written that way because Margaret Mitchell believed the South should have won the Civil War. And if that had happened, slavery would still have been allowed when she wrote the book. It would still be allowed today. GONE WITH THE WIND is a strangely romanticized tale about peonage and indentured servitude. Racists made the book a best seller and racists turned it into a movie. And racists kept the book and the movie popular for generations afterward.

But people on Twitter aren't going to tweet about GOLDEN DAWN. They're going to tweet about GONE WITH THE WIND. So TCM is only airing the "big movies" to drum up publicity.

Which naturally makes repudiation of prejudice in movies illegitimate. So unless you mark every instance of prejudice in movies in criticism of it, you cannot criticize it at all. I expect that would take about five years of solid programming to accomplish that goal. Though it would probably be difficult to tell the difference from regular programming.

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943)

Some of it is just "marketing"-- a way to trot out a lot of the usual MGM/WB/RKO suspects. Though PSYCHO and TIFFANY'S do come from outside the Turner library. Notice they do not include any "B" films or foreign films. It's just well-known Hollywood "A" films.

Of course she was... Because she was played by Patsy Kelly, classic film comedienne: (^^^ready to launch a zinger-devil beware!)

Ruth Roman

Matthews, Kerwin

Sense and Sensibility 1995 next: Peter O'Toole , Anthony Hopkins and Katharine Hepburn

It's a good thing Madeleine Carroll is so beautiful, otherwise she would have been upstaged by her dresses.

Kinski, Klaus

Gray, Ann -- Maureen O'Sullivan in Woman Wanted (1935)

War of the Roses (1989) Next: Alan, Rickman, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson

Anthony Norman Perkins Next: born in the 1910s

I think The Mask of Dimitrios is their best work, and a great film. It was made during war time, when many younger actors were at war, which gave Lorre and Greenstreet opportunities to star, as they did in Three Strangers. I particularly want to single out Victor Francen's work in one long scene with Peter Lorre in the film. I think Francen's work in that scene is brilliant.

Essential: BAMBI (1942) TopBilled: This month we are doing a version of Jlewis’ picks. I have since realized how knowledgeable he is about all things related to Walt Disney. As you may recall, a few years ago I had reviewed some Disney animation from the 1990s. But I thought we could revisit Disney and cover a bit more than animation this time around. Jlewis has come up with a variety of titles that include animation and live action features. We’re starting with the animated classic BAMBI and truth be told, I don’t think I had seen it since one of the 80s theatrical reissues when I was a kid. It’s a film that lingers in your memory long after the initial viewing. Key sequences may currently be found for free on YouTube. These include the memorable scenes where Bambi’s mother dies, as well as the blazing forest fire that threatens the safety of not only the deer but a majority of other wildlife. The death of Bambi’s mother is certainly heavy drama and may be hard for some children to take. I guess that’s why it lingers in the mind. I came across some interesting comments under the YT clip I watched yesterday where people discussed the merits of how mama doe dies off screen. A gunshot is heard while she and Bambi run to safety. Bambi has run ahead but he is not rejoined by his mother. His father, the prince buck, finds him and explains his mother’s death. Disney plans to remake the feature in 2021/2022. Though that may be postponed due to the pandemic. I wonder if they’ll depict the mother’s death on screen in the remake. Will the violence of the story be presented differently? The forest fire is another situation. We do not learn about any animals dying during the blaze, but realistically some of them probably would have perished. The most memorable image, in my opinion, is when the adult animals reach a haven along a shore with their young. The expressions on their faces as they find refuge makes me appreciate the struggle for survival. It’s something we all can relate to, wanting to keep ourselves and our youngsters from harm. While watching the clips, I was familiarizing myself with the overall story. I read up on Felix Salten, the Jewish author from Austria who had first published “Bambi, a Life in the Woods” in 1923. I learned he had also written a sequel called “Bambi’s Children” in 1939 after he had sold the rights of the original story to Hollywood. In the sequel, we follow Bambi’s twins and there are now cousin characters that are introduced. Reading the plot summary, it seemed clear to me that Salten had woven in some sort of allegory about the Germans. The men that are hunting down these innocent creatures are quite Nazi-like in their pursuit to kill or capture their prey. I would say that on some level Bambi is an eco-horror story. A potentially grim form of environmentalism about what is required to survive. Ironically, the film’s own survival was in jeopardy when a legal tangle occurred between Disney and a publishing company that purchased the literary rights from Salten’s heirs. But fortunately, the copyright issues were resolved and it continues to be available for subsequent generations. That’s a good thing because of what Bambi teaches us about ourselves. BAMBI may currently be viewed in its entirety on YouTube for a small rental fee.

Boo Moon (1954) Youtube 8/10 Casper The Friendly Ghost goes to the moon. This cartoon was originally released in 3D. It starts as a typical Casper cartoon as he tries to make friends but everybody runs in terror from him. He looks into a telescope and the man in the moon looks friendly so he goes there. There are many twists and turns in this 6 minute cartoon and it is highly entertaining, one that I remember well from my childhood days. Casper becomes a Gulliver type character as tiny moon men capture him. There is a very scary attack by some Tree-men. That scene has been burned into my memory for decades, it was great to watch it again.

The political arc which was, I suppose to be Mank's motivation at getting at Hearst, did not work. But without it you had a guy drying out on a motel bed dictating a movie script. Not much there either.

If you start off with one film in their musical series, TikiSoo, may I suggest ROSE MARIE (1936)? This is the one remembered for Nelson playing a Mountie, with the two lovers at one point singing "Indian Love Call" to one another. Yes, it's dated, terribly so, but director Woody Van Dyke injects the film with energy and the rear screen projection of Canadian north woods, while obvious, is still an enjoyable outdoorsy backdrop. The film also has more enjoyable humour than any of the others in their series. More important than that, though, aside from the operetta singing, which may not be your cup of tea, is the skill of MacDonald's performance. Unlike most of the rest of the series with Eddy this film reminds you that Jeanette had started off playing comedy in Ernst Lubitsch films. Rose Marie has, for my money, possibly MacDonald's most engaging performance as an actress. The film's early scenes have brief moments of self parody as a temperamental prima donna opera singer. Later, though, there's a scene in which Jeanette is trying to earn a little money in a rough northern tavern with patrons who only want their women wiggling as they belt out a h o n k y tonk song. Jeanette tries to emulate a hard boiled floozy there and she is clearly a fish out of water. MacDonald, so in her element on the opera stage earlier in the film, brings genuine vulnerability to this scene as a woman who is clearly out of her depth. On a side note, a very young Jimmy Stewart has a brief role in this film as MacDonald's fugitive brother. The role might not be much but the Stewart charm is still on full display.

On Svengoolie tomorrow, March 6, 2021:

The extremely rare 1933 British version with Anna Neagle can be found on You Tube in a very mediocre quality print. I haven't watched it but visually, of course, it can't compare to the colour of the lavish MacDonald MGM production. Another aspect of the version with Jeanette and Nelson that I appreciated was some of the comedy shtick briefly brought to the production by roly poly language mangling character actor Herman Bing. I wish the film could have had a bit more of it.

THE ADVENTURES OF JANE ARDEN

The Citadel (1938) Next: Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkle, Ann-Margaret

Yes, first-time audiences giggle at the tree-shooting scene, but in context of Jewison's message--ie., that the Corporate Utopia may have replaced war with NFL Rollerball, but they haven't replaced violence, with the arena audiences starting to rush the glass stadium-guards like pumped NHL hooligans-- it's creepily disturbing. Unlike the clueless '02 remake (which gave us a kewl pirate channel run by a Russian gangster, dood!), the '75 version gives us a dystopia where "the Corporations" have literally replaced the governments, and now frown upon the idea of individuality, that James Caan becoming the new personal Joe Namath of the game sends a Dangerous Message to the masses, and when Caan avoids the, ahem, persuasion from the management to retire, the game starts becoming hazardous to his health. Where all safety, replacements and penalty rules have now been removed in the championship match, for higher TV ratings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fvtUcOnp7w Yeah, I first thought it was "campy" too, but on a second viewing in context, it does become Kubrick-unsettling as the red lights multiply on the scoreboard during the climactic game... 😮

I dont know. Maybe I am going out on a limb here, but something I never hear mentioned in all of this racism stuff is...has anyone ever asked, oh, say...the actors and actresses that are actually IN "racist" movies? I dont know if I have missed something along the way. But it seems when people get so offended at something like this, they dont think to themselves "Wait...there were Black, Asian, Indian actors in that movie. If they found it so bad, why didn't they say no to the script or idea?!" For example, I see racist fingerpointing at "Blazing Saddles." Did it dawn on any of the cancel culture that Richard Pryor co-wrote it and Cleavon Little was IN it and actually said the N word himself?! Now, I know we cant ask Pryor or Little about this since they've already passed. But doesnt it seem to make sense that they didnt have a problem with it? Why doesnt cancel culture and those who view offensive material maybe get the opinion of actors and actresses from different races and cultures and find out their opinion since they participated in said offensive racist material? I'm not trying to start an argument. When "Blazing Saddles" came into the cancel subject, my first thought was "Ummm.....you know Richard freakin' Pryor did co-write that, didn't you?!"

Never A Dull Moment 1950 next: John Garfield, Claude Rains and Priscilla Lane

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) TCM On Demand 10/10 A Korean war hero (Laurence Harvey) is brainwashed into being an assassin by the Communists. First time I watched this all the way through in years, it is still one of the greatest thrillers I have ever seen. So many great scenes and performances. Frank Sinatra in one of his best as Harvey's superior officer who is plagued by nightmares after the war. The brainwashing scenes are brilliantly done, I don't want to say too much about them so others will be encouraged to watch this. Khigh Deigh has some wickedly funny moments as the main Korean brainwasher. There is one of the first martial arts fights in a American film between Sinatra and Henry Silva (playing a Korean). It is one of the best fight scenes I have ever seen. Angela Lansbury nearly steals the film as Harvey's cold hearted mother. James Gregory plays her henpecked red baiting Senator husband. Janet Leigh plays Sinatra's love interest and they have some of the weirdest dialogue when they first meet. The climax is a shocker.

Richard Widmark?

Keefer, Florence, played by Judy Holliday in "The Marrying Kind"

His Own People

Sally Struthers

THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)

The Waltons

YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH

Clancy, Nurse, played by Thelma Ritter in "With a Song in My Heart"

I hope you're kidding, (and it wasn't funny even if you were) that's one of the weirdest posts yet!

I have to admit I like this Movie Roberts idea for Star of the Month. It gives them a chance to feature people like Robert Donat, Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner, who are typically overlooked. It's nice they're leading off with Robert Osborne's Private Screenings. I do think that after Osborne's piece, they could have shown ROBERTA (1935) and MISTER ROBERTS (1955), just to thematically kick off the classic movies part of it.

*When Harry Met Sally Under the Yum Yum Tree Where the Green Ants Dream, They Knew What They Wanted: Hard Candy & Champagne for Caesar.*