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Reposted because I NEVER GET TIRED OF WATCHING THIS: ”aAAAAAaah, a French cham-pagnes, always celebrated forest ellleganssse..”

Have to mention Carmen Miranda --

Looks like a bird crashed into her hat breaking it's neck!

Bette Davis as Regina in The Little Foxes.

Doris Day in Lover Come Back (1961)

Must TCM kowtow to the Leftist quest to divide, rather than unite, Americans by searching for a racist under ever rock in every film to pillory ? The Searchers is a great epic about the conflict of two cultures, the detritus population of an increasingly democratic Europe flooding to an underpopulated west and eventually displacing an established primitive culture. In most cases some accommodation was reached, for a time, usually to the established people’s disadvantage as the newcomers modernization simply overwhelmed it predecessor. The movie, naturally, is about conflict . Persons from the established culture, as was their tradition, raided, killed and took slaves from the encroachers. Ethan Hawks goes on a quest to recover family members taken during the raid. Ethan admires some aspects of this native culture but despises the barbaric behaviors which are a part of that culture. But is this really about race ? Or is it about the clash of two cultures, the more democratic modernized culture as seen through Ethan, struggling to thwart the barbarism of the established culture by reclaiming the enslaved members of his family ? Certainly Ethan believes he is superior to many of those around him, regardless of, and sometimes because of race. But having seen unrivaled barbarism exhibited in a war among his own race, he struggles against its practice against the innocent, in the only way he knows, by matching their violence with violence. Ethan is a hero and no amount of contrived white guilt will change that.

Grace Kelly wore a lot of classic hats:

January 7 Trouble in Paradise (Paramount, 1932) Source: TCM Again Lubitsch, again Hopkins. Now, this is a film I will stop and watch every time it's on. It was just on again Sunday I think on a night devoted to Kay Francis (or Fwancis as one poster on here, I've forgotten who, must call her every time she's mentioned), but I'm visiting my mother and was unable to watch. Not sure I can pinpoint why I find this film so much more compelling than The Smiling Lieutenant. The twists and turns of the plot are part of it, as are the charms of Herbert Marshall. He wasn't handsome enough to be a full-time romantic lead, I guess, but he works just fine, more than fine, in that role in this movie. Marshall and Hopkins are con artists and thieves each pretending to be someone they're not. They arrange a private romantic dinner, each with the intent of fleecing the other. In a clever touch, only when they both realize they're being fleeced by the other do they realize they've found their soul mate. Or so it seems. They launch an elaborate plot to insinuate themselves into the lives of a fabulously wealthy female tycoon (Francis), by first stealing a valuable item of hers than returning it for the reward money. They both become personal assistants to Francis. I think they're pretending to be brother and sister? I've forgotten that part. Anyway, in the course of the deception, as Marshall and Hopkins are plotting to really fleece Francis of everything, Marshall proves to be a remarkably good personal assistant, and he and Francis become attracted to each other, leaving Hopkins seething with jealousy. Meanwhile, Francis' associates, who are suspicious of Marshall from the get-go, edge more closely to discovering his true identity. Much of this depends on the memory of one Edward Everett Horton, a would-be suitor of Francis' whom Marshall once conked on the head while robbing him blind in Venice. Horton and Charlie Ruggles, who was underused in Lubitsch's Smiling Lieutenant, provide a lot of nice comic relief as battling suitors for Francis' hand, though she only has eyes for Marshall. I always get wrapped up wondering how it's all going to end (not entirely sure I remember right now, which is just as well, since I can't spoil the ending). Someone is going to have to get hurt or make a sacrifice. I've already praised Marshall. Francis I can kind of take or leave, although I like her here with her quiet confidence and her adoration of Marshall. Hopkins has to play a broader role, at first the love interest, then the increasingly frustrated partner who fears she's about to be thrown over. She's fearless in the part and makes the movie stronger. Like in Lieutenant, there are many clever Lubitsch sight gags. And no musical numbers, which is probably one I reason why I like it better. This is one of the great early sophisticated comedies, and I highly recommend it. Total movies seen this year: 13

Life with Elizabeth Next: Steve Buscemi, Jack Huston, Kelly Macdonald

I have a very well-made reproduction of this hat. You do not need to know why.

January 6 Death on the Nile (EMI; dist. in the US by Paramount, 1978) Source: TCM I am tentatively trying to get back on my plan of posting and reviewing every movie I watch this year. Various circumstances, family tragedy and some sort of general sense of malaise within me sidetracked me very early on. I don't know if I can recover, since I'm now nine weeks behind. I can only review one movie at a time and see what I can do! I definitely need to do shorter reviews if I'm going to have any prayer, although it will probably be hard for me to show brevity on an old sentimental favorite like this one. Two months ago, I watched LornaHansonForbes' link to the video showing all the errors in this movie. I must admit, though my viewing in January was probably 15th or 20th time to watch it, I wasn't aware of virtually any of them, although I think maybe once I noted the reversal of positions of the two newlyweds climbing the pyramid. I guess I'm not very observant, or I was just so sucked in, I didn't notice. I think I was in fourth grade when my parents and my older brother went to the see this movie without me. I don't recall the circumstances, but I must have either been sleeping over at a friend's house or with one set of grandparents. My mom and brother both raved about it. I didn't see it until it aired on HBO, probably a year later. It sparked a several year obsession with Agatha Christie and particularly the Hercule Poirot mysteries with me. Our local Waldenbooks put out all her paperbacks and had them neatly stacked in chronological order, using up a massive amount of shelf space that would certainly never happen today, and I started with Murder on the Links and went on through to Curtain. I don't know many 11-year-olds were reading Agatha Christie then. I can say with some confidence in my many years as both a teacher and substitute teacher that roughly zero per cent of 11-year-olds are aware of her existence now. I also read maybe two Miss Marples and 10 Little Indians, but otherwise, I was all about Poirot. Probably quite sexist of me. Death on the Nile was one of Christie's "travelogue" mysteries, like Murder on the Orient Express. As I recall, these books were quite a bit longer than the standard Poirot mysteries and obviously set in exotic locales. I read the book after seeing the movie. As I recall, the plot is very similar. The movie does sort of painstakingly make a case in its middle third to show why each suspect, even some really unlikely ones, might want to have committed the murder and how in a bit of a repetitive fashion that I think the book handled better. Even at age 11 with not a lot of movie-watching experience, I was like, "Yeah, okay, I get it. Any one of them could have done it." In England, there's a fabulously wealthy young woman (Lois Chiles) who has a peniless bestie (Mia Farrow) who's informed her she's fallen in love with and is engaged to a brilliant young man (Simon MacCorkindale) who's "as poor as a church mouse", and can she bring him round and maybe see if the rich woman can find some kind of employment before him. Next scene, Farrow introduces MacCorkindale to Chiles, and they smile at each other way too long. Jump ahead a few months, it's Chiles and MacCorkindale who are married and Farrow playing the role of bitter, deranged stalker. They try to flee to Cairo to get away from her, but she books passage on the same boat about to go on a Nile excursion. Also sailing is Poirot, played for the first time by Peter Ustinov. Okay, Mild Spoiler Alerts from here on out. If you've never seen the movie before, it take a little time to figure out who the victim is going to be, because the movie takes its time to work up to the murder. It's the wealthy woman, who gets shot in the temple in her cabin just after a great deal of commotion has been going on involving violence between the Farrow and MacCorkindale characters. Though Farrow would initially seem the obvious suspect, the aftermath of said violence indicates it was physically impossible for her to have committed the murder. That's okay, though: the whole damn ship is populated with a who's who of actors whose characters all bore Chiles a grudge: Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy and Jane Birkin. I may be forgetting a couple. I will only reveal that most of these characters are window dressing, as a Christie story typically needs a lot of suspects, and the main triangle of characters provide the thread that needs to be followed most closely from beginning to end. The way the murder was committed, and the way the murderer avoids detection (at least temporarily - no one escapes Poirot) is probably preposterous if you give it too much thought, but very clever for an escapist movie.\ I especially like Ustinov. He's still my favorite Poirot. On this most recent viewing, I was particularly struck by the scenes between him and Farrow early on, where he warns her about letting evil nest in her heart. I find Farrow something of a mixed bag. I've never cared for her much in most of her non-Woody Allen movies (I'm not going to talk about that controversy anymore. I thought I gave a very fair summary of that new documentary, and Hibi bust a gut laughing at me, saying I sounded like an Allen PR agent. So maybe we're not even aware of our own biases), but she's very riveting here. I don't remember if this or Return from Witch Mountain came out first, but those were the first two Bette Davis movies I ever saw, and then that song came out, and I was like, "Woah, guess she was a big deal." I don't suppose I'd ever seen a picture of her younger self at that time. The snippy banter between her and Smith is great fun, and I assume the latter was thrilled to get to share the screen with the former? Similarly, I saw this movie and the Disney movie Candleshoe around the same time, followed not long after by one of the very late Pink Panther movies, and that trio was my introduction to David Niven at the very end of his career. He's charming as all get out as Poirot's Watson (more or less) in this one. I love the scene where he tangos with Lansbury (this film was also my introduction to her). MacCorkindale was briefly a big deal, but I never really heard from him again after Jaws 3-D and Manimal. I was kinda sad to see on his imdb page that he died more than 10 years ago in his late '50s. Anyway, I love the on-location shooting (was it on-location? I better pull in the reigns on that assumption, but it's very authentic-looking). It was very evocative of a time that I'm sort of sad I missed, when people of means could travel so glamorously, although it does reek a bit of colonial privilege. I always laugh when the ship's host says "I grovel in mortification". And the ending is pretty boffo. With all the big movies being postponed during the pandemic, I am only vaguely becoming aware again that film is finally about to get the Kenneth Branagh treatment, after his adaptation of Orient Express. I found that film only kind of okay. Essentially the same plot with some dumb extra scenes and unnecessary CGI. I fear this one will be more of the same. Total movies seen this year: 11

I love everything about Written on the Wind, including this hat worn by Dorothy Malone!

In England, so is John Thomas. In Promise Her Anything Leslie Caron's baby is called John Thomas, and this was probably done for the reference which many wouldn't get.

Apparently, the original costume sold for a pretty penny at auction. You can buy a reproduction on Etsy for $650. Where would you wear it? This reproduction-while excellent- shows the failure to copy brilliant subtleties that sets the original apart: The more interesting double stripe taffeta fabric The "cuffed" edge heavily wired to shape, more rounded, flattering Dried grasses (not 2 fern sprigs) & flower arrangement that shows movement, doesn't just lie there.

I think Gene Tierney looks adorable in her rain hat as we find out she is, indeed, not dead!

A Night of Terror (aka Love From a Stranger) 1937 Arsenic and Old Lace The Woman in Green (Basil again!)

Doctor X (1932) the Moon Killer Whistling in Brooklyn (1943) "Constant Reader" Badlands (1973) 10 Rillington Place (1971)

Ugh I have a marvelous Australian Wool Riding hat I no longer wear because everyone calls it an "Indiana Jones" hat. It's a weatherproof COWBOY hat:

Lotta research there, TopBilled. Nice job!

Ronald Colman! Yes!!! Nowadays they just call a fedora a "Gangster Hat" or, if you bought one at Disneyland in the 90s like I did, it was called an "Indian Jones Hat"

When that movie was on TCM recently, every hat she wore met with a chuckle -- "Another crazy hat!"

Amadeus (1984): Salieri was envious. Next: Early example of an electronic soundtrack.

Adams, Julie

Last night, I watched Austenland with Keri Russell as a woman obsessed with the author. She attends Austenland, run by a very nasty Jane Seymour, and, because Ms. Russell has a bargain package, she is treated like dirt by several people. It was cute and Jennifer Coolidge almost steals the show. I have seen at least one other movie with obsessed Austen fans, including one with Emily Blunt. I've read all of Austen at least once (and have seen several movie adaptations); however, while I consider myself a Dickensian and was a member of a Dickensian society, I am not obsessed with him. After that, watched Robert Irvin on Food Network (Restaurant and Dinner Impossible) because they weren't repeats.

The Lodger

I didn't know Simon Mac. had died. How sad. His career never panned out after this film for some reason. Yes, it really was shot on location. Not sure all the interior boat scenes were, but they really were floating down the Nile. I remember Bette complaining afterwards about the heat and how in the good old days they'd have shot it on a studio set...........

My favorite Dean Stockwell as a child performance is in The Happy Years (1950), based on Owen Johnson's Lawrenceville Stories. Stockwell is the star of this highly enjoyable film about a bad boy in early 20th century New Jersey.

Who are all these newbies suddenly complaining in different posts could it be the same person ?

One of the greatest movies with excellent acting ruined by political liberal hacks who failed in their attempts to act and decided to play at liberal politics which any dummy can do!

Much ridicule is made about these Nuclear Power Plant shaped hats Adrian favored. In his defense, the organic shape is very flattering to a perfect face such as Garbo's: she has strong perfectly symmetrical evenly spaced features. The hat creates a triangular shape along with her hark hair on either side of her neck perfectly framing her face without effecting the proportion. Unfortunately, it's too different and comes across as silly, subconsciously reminding people of this: PS I'm a hat collector & have several of the styles pictured in this thread.

Robert Ryan in real life was a proud, hard-core Libtard (And a man after my own heart) Fiercely antiwar and a sponsor of the ACLU, he actually found himself in the crosshairs of a lot of right wing militia groups. (This is actually according to Eddie Mueller himself in his book DARK CITY.) I like Robert Ryan. As far as Orson goes, it depends on which stage of his career you want to get in a fight with him. If it’s post “touch of evil” morbidly obese, constantly drunk, wine commercial filming, cravat wearing Orson- Something tells me it would be like punching a 400 pound contractor bag full of custard. All Orson had to do to best you was probably throw up or just collapse on top of you and wait for you to smother to death.

This style of hat I'm sure was worn by many in its day, but this gent wore it better than most.

Saturday, March 20/21 4 a.m. Late Spring (1949). Yasujiro Ozu film with Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara

Upshaw, Mrs. - Zasu Pitts in Going Highbrow

Margaret Rutherford

January 7 The Smiling Lieutenant (Paramount, 1931) Source: TCM This movie, which maybe should have been called The Winking Lieutenant, was part of Miriam Hopkins' Star of the Month spotlight. It was maybe my fifth, sixth, seventh time to see it. We got the obligatory references to Lubitsch Touch in the intro. I see this was Paramount's biggest grossing of the film of the year, so it was clearly a big deal. Maurice Chevalier plays a lieutenant in the Austrian royal guard who's quite the Don Juan. His comrade in arms played by the always-memorable Charlie Ruggles takes him to meet the woman Ruggles is sweet on, a concert violinist played by a strikingly young Claudette Colbert. Since one man is Maurice Chevalier and the other is Charlie Ruggles, Colbert winds up as Chevalier's girlfriend. Sadly, the gobsmacked and disgruntled Ruggles disappears from the film at this point. Sometime later, the king of the neighboring postage-stamp fictional country of Flausenthurm and his daughter, played by Hopkins, pay a state visit. While standing guard at the welcoming ceremony, Chevalier spots Colbert at the crowd and winks at her .... except Hopkins thinks he's winking at her. To avoid an international incident, Chevalier must prove his intentions were honorable and marry Hopkins. He's set up for a life of luxury, but it's a life, he finds very boring, so as often as he can, he puts on a tuxedo and straw hat (looking like Bing Crosby) and heads out to rendezvous with Colbert. Meanwhile, Hopkins is heartbroken. Spoiler Alert Hopkins summons Colbert to a private audience and bares her soul. Colbert isn't unsympathetic. She doesn't want to be a palace-wrecker, I guess. And so she gives Hopkins some advice on how to encourage Chevalier to stay home more often, along the lines of the way Sandy hooks Danny at the end of Grease. I don't know how women are supposed to interpret this. Being a bit of a "hoor" is alright within the playful confines of marriage, apparently. There are several clever sight gags, and I probably like best the scene near the end between Colbert and Hopkins. There's a kiss between them that seems to linger just a fraction of a second too long. This is not really my favorite Lubitsch film, but there's nothing I can really think of to say that's wrong with it. I give it a thumbs up, thought I might not go out of my way to watch it again any time soon. Okay, how's that for brevity? Total movies seen this year: 12

This is one of my favorite styles, and Roy Scheider wears it perfectly well in All That Jazz.

I wouldn't be so fast in that assumption about Orson Welles. Errol Flynn wrote an anecdote of an encounter he had with Welles in a Hollywood night spot. Big Boy Williams, a Flynn pal who hated Welles for some reason, was goading the actor in public that night and Welles finally said to him that perhaps they should take it outside. Williams guffawed at the suggestion but Flynn talked Big Boy out of it. Flynn said Big Boy Williams was one of the strongest men he ever met and Welles had all the guts in the world to be ready to physically stand up to him.

College (1927)

East Side, West Side Next: Jeff Chandler, Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget

Harry Morgan, in particular, is a wonderful suggestion!

Designing Women Next: Sada Thompson, James Broderick, Meredith Baxter

The Monkees Next: Dixie Carter, Annie Potts and Delta Burke

Nobody wore a hat as well as Myrna Loy!

Traherne, Judith -- played by Bette Davis in DARK VICTORY (1939)

Let's start off with the famous Ninotchka Hat! In terms of fashion this is absolutely ridiculous and I'd never wear it outside. In terms of historical costume appeal, I'd use it in a movie or show in five seconds because I LOVE THIS HAT!