Members

Leslie Caron--I attended an interview Leslie Caron gave at the TCM Film Festival and then stood in line to get a copy of her memoir signed. Miss Caron looked marvelous for her age and seemed genuinely surprised that so many people wanted to see her. Because the room at the Roosevelt Hotel had filled up quickly, those of us at the back were politely told by the staff that Miss Caron might want to leave before the end of the very long line. Not so! I got to say, "You were wonderful in The L-Shaped Room." "Such a grisly film," she said. Another man in the line told her that The Story of Three Loves was one of his favorite films. She seemed a little surprised that we knew these films. A friend who worked as a flight attendant for Delta for thirty years met a number of celebrities. She said that one of the nicest was Denzel Washington. She did not have as fond memories of Barbara Walters. Ms. Walters' assistant said, "You are not to speak to Ms. Walters. Ask me your questions and I will ask her and tell you the answers." So she kept having to ask the assistant, "Would Ms. Walters like the chicken or the beef? Would Ms. Walters like coffee after her dinner?" and so on.

I ask you, where else can you find a hot nuns thread.

More classic, or classic-era stars I encountered when I was a waiter at The Russian Tea Room... Carol Channing She was in person, just like her fans would imagine her; upbeat, polite though reserved, and a bit spacey. One of her unique habits was to bring her own food, water and maybe a **** to the restaurant in very nice silver boxes and containers of various sizes. She would order nothing except a cup of hot water, and maybe an empty plate. Her food, miniscule but amazingly weird:. She would bring with her (I am not kidding) maybe 4 almonds and 2 leaves of bibb lettuce for dinner. Dessert? a half of a fig. Which she would nibble on, eat about half, and put the leftover fig back in the silver box. This did not help build my guest check total and thus my tip, but the buzz in the room, when she came in was great. Sylvia Miles Ms Miles was there regularly, especially at private events that were less than A-list. I read somewhere that she would attend "the opening of an envelope". A great line and quite true. She was quite open in terms of discussing intimate facts of her personal life. Which would have been more fun if she was not in her upper 60's at the time. Believe it or not: she spent months with us promoting herself for an Oscar nomination for Wall Street (1987). Tina Louise Ms Louise, in the 1980's-90's was also a regular at private parties at The RTR... and she looked awesome. Beautiful woman. which leads to... Robert Duvall? Weeknight cocktail party on the second floor. I have no idea what the occasion was, but it was a very lame party. And not the most upscale event. In other words, bare bones amenities, no open bar, limited food... The most noteworthy attendee is Sylvia Miles. My colleague Danny and I are at the top of the stairs, greeting guests... We see Mr Duvall coming up the stairs. "Good evening Mr Duvall", "Hi boys". Danny are I are like "no way is Duvall staying here". Duvall went to the bar, ordered a drink... while my man TR is making Duvall's drink, Duvall is scanning the room....sees Sylvia Miles... Tells the bartender, sorry "I've got to go..." Duvall gone...

I also enjoyed it quite a lot, MissW. Second viewing for me. Like you, I have no desire to go round and round the gerbil cage on whether it is or isn't noir. And yes, wasn't Lucas Gridoux great as Inspector Slimane. This story absolutely depends on having an unusually charismatic actor in the title role--Gabin certainly qualifies--and a fascinating woman he would plausibly risk everything for--Mireille Balin definitely qualifies. Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr deliver in Algiers, too. Did you notice how Gabin slaps everyone around, male and female alike? We have to believe that, however we would respond to that treatment, the people who know Gabin would accept it. Julien Duvivier continues to impress me as one of the great directors, especially impressive here for the creation of the world of the Casbah.

Una Merkel played her mother in The Mating Game and I Love Melvin Debbie dancing with Bobby Van in Skirts Ahoy! and in The Affairs of Dobie Gillis

On Moonlight Bay 1951

Midnight Mary (1933) loretta was never more beautiful ❤️

Even seeing this as a kid, always viewed Higgins as a (gay) man with zero interest in Eliza except as a project. Seems to me, Eliza's tenacity & transformation intrigue him and obviously he has grown to care for her and possibly softened towards women in general. Higgins even learns a bit from Eliza's Father, obviously delighted & intrigued by Mr Do-Little's freewheeling take on life, love & family. The story is as much HIS transformation as HERS. The ending seems to me, that Higgins has decided women aren't so bad, he'd rather keep her around. And Eliza, accepts Higgins arrogant nature, now realizing she has the knowledge, talent & power to take charge of her situation. I agree with the above assessment, that marrying Freddy would be a step down, an admission nothing has changed for her except her appearance.

The Manchurian Candidate (Angela Lansbury) Next: Trustworthy female expert

It's a shame that no one asked the assistant, "Would Ms. Walters be willing to take some lessons in gwaciousness graciousness from Mr. Washington?"

Just came across this thread and found Sepiatone and Dargo expressing my thoughts exactly about this film. I confess I was quite puzzled as to why this movie was "problematic" for our TCM panel, and I guess I see the ending in an entirely different light. Haven't we just taken in close to a 10 minute scene in Higgins' mother's house in which Eliza and the Professor go 10 rounds and Eliza KO's him in the end? Now that know they can square off against each other, the underlying affection can surface in a remarkable way. "Eliza, I like you this way," says Higgins. So the last shot of the film seems to me perfectly satisfying -- with apologies to GBS, sadly. To me, it's all in the expressions on their faces -- both smiling. Higgins has begun the jovial sparring that only couples know from their own intimacy, but is incomprehensible to the outside world. Again, in the last shot, Eliza is most certainly not dashing off to fetch the slippers. She takes a step and then halts. Cue music, screen to black, end movie. I think it works fine. Now I, too, thought she is capable now of saying to Higgins those things which Dargo has pointed out earlier. Oh, one other thing, I suppose. If we were to get the original meaning of the ending as Shaw wanted, I am fully convinced that Eliza's marriage to Freddie would turn out to be the complete disaster that Higgins predicted. She'd be marrying down. Brian

Breck, Peter

I enjoyed Pepe le Moko. Also Eddie's commentary(s) around it. I'm not sure I'd classify it as a "noir" per sec, but we all know that noir is more a style than a genre, and I definitely don't want to get into yet another debate about what exactly is defined as "noir". I was entertained by it, amused by many of the characters, impressed by the "Casbah" setting (most of which was probably a set, I doubt they actually went to Algiers to film it, but that's ok.) I liked Jean Gabin...in fact, I liked all the actors in this French film. Especially someone by the name of "Lucas Gridoux", who played the slimey but somehow likable Inspector Slimane (appropriate name, that, given he was, as I said , somewhat slimey.) I've seen the remake, Algiers, which Eddie mentions. It's very similar to the original. At the time I saw it (a few years ago, on TCM), I was unaware of the original. I do like the original better, but the remake was also fine. I'm afraid that, although I did quite like Pepe le Moko, I can't think of much more to say about it. Anyone else?

The Chapman Report (1962). Hollywood tried to make a serious movie about sex while the Production Code was still in effect. It's an impossible task, an needless to say, they failed badly. Four women (Jane Fonda, Shelley Winters, Glynis Johns, and Claire Bloom) all respond to a couple of sexologists doing a scientific study of women's sexuality. This is the hook to explore the various characters' sex lives. Glynis Johns comes off best, since she gets the comic relief portion of the movie, as a wife who thinks spicing up her sex life with football player Ty Hardin will make things more interesting to the researchers. Winters does reasonably well in a standard-issue "trapped in a loveless marriage" plotline, while Fonda and Bloom belonged in an over-the-top melodrama like The Best of Everything. It doesn't work, and it didn't help that the TCM print looked to me as though it had been panned-and-scanned from Cinemascope. In fact, IMDb says it was originally filmed with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio, not Cinemascope, but it looked grainy with the colors being a bit washed out. 4/10.

Just saw a new documentary on HBO last night about Tina Turner. It's only titled Tina, and its extremely well-made. Tragic, heartbreaking, ultimately very touching, invigorating, and uplifting. It makes you love her even more. It is also as she states toward the end, her retirement note. It seems that (unless she pops up for inductment at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) she just wants to bow out now and live the rest of her life quietly.

BAMBI (1942)

Always been a fan of those cool pointy medieval hats

I can believe this, since I have read many stories of how rude, nasty and downright abusive he could be with the help at restaurants and hotels. He was not nice to fans either. While appearing in My Fair Lady on Broadway, a woman asked for an autograph and he told her to "sod off". She responded by smacking him on the head and shoulders several times with her playbill. Stanley Holloway (Alfed Doolittle in the show and not fond of Harrison either), saw this and later said it was "an unusual and welcome case of the fan hitting the sh*t."

with Vic Damone Athena 1954 Hit The Deck 1955

with Frank Sinatra The Tender Trap 1955 Pepe 1960

In response to some of the comments, I don't agree that at the end of the movie Higgins has "transformed". I think he feels disappointed or sad that Eliza decided to leave but he doesn't start treating Eliza in a loving or respectful way. I very much prefer Shaw's ending where Higgins doesn't get Eliza back. Shaw wrote "Pygmalion" (renamed "My Fair Lady") as a social satire and comment on class consciousness (as well as male attitudes toward women) in Edwardian England. In the movie "My Fair Lady", there are many happy sounding, humorous songs which lighten the more serious behaviors and issues in the story. Higgins treats Eliza as a total inferior when she walks in the door and refers to her as "baggage" because she is poor and from a different class. He is brutal with her during her voice exercises and he gives her no positive acknowledgement (or even talks to her) after she is a "triumph at the ball". He treats Eliza like a thing. Good relationships are based on love and respect and I don't see the signs at the end of the film that Higgins is a changed man. Eliza worked to transform herself and she deserves more than Higgins.

HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (1941)

Nanny and the Professor

1985

with Glenn Ford It Started With A Kiss 1959 The Gazebo 1959 with Tony Curtis The Rat Race 1960 Goodbye Charlie 1964

My Dad(who was really my stepfather) had an older sister who was a nun( in her case then, twice a sister ) She of course looked nothing like Sophia Loren, but had a robust, outgoing manner and a lively sense of humor that went against what most people think a nun's demeanor is. My Dad, also of robust manner was always (and uncharacteristically) demure and anxious in her presence when she came over for a visit. Of course, I attributed it to his Catholic upbringing and young education by nuns in Catholic parochial school. She even remarked on this during one visit. She told him, " Oh, just relax and quit being so nervous George. There's nothing to be afraid of. I didn't bring my steel ruler." Yep. Lively sense of humor. Sepiatone

My ex is a F/A for SWA but used to fly for AA. He had Jane Fonda on a SW flight to ABQ, and she was very nice. So was Dolly Parton on AA. The worst experience he had was Oprah Winfrey, which, like Ms. Walters, communicated only through an assistant.

Trump Goes the Weasel (2024) next : "Do I have any takers?"

And shirley, ahem, I mean surely we all remember Maureen McGovern in her role in the movie Airplane! here, right?! (...and as much as these two guys would apparently like to forget it)

If I ever saw Sophia as a nun I'd be thinking, "Those hills are alive!"

The Packard 120. Arthur multitasks drinking and driving to Susan's house in arthur. "You must have hated this moose"

Danton, Ray

Chandler, Jeff

Adams, Julie

Keefer, Lt. Tom - Fred MacMurray in The Caine Mutiny

The Adventures of Superman next: Martin Milner, Kent McCord and William Boyett

Too bad the place where Moses parted the waters were not. Reed or Sea of Reeds NOT Red Sea,....Yam Suph (Hebrew: ים קנה) One other thing to consider, the area we see today wouldn't be the same as back then due to geological changes. The shallow depth of the Sea of Reeds makes it more likely the theory of wind set down. There was a similar event witnessed at a lagoon in February 1882, when British Army Major-General Alexander Tulloch reported a gale of wind from the eastward set in and became so strong that I had to cease work. The next morning, he said found the lake had totally disappeared...and the natives were walking about on the mud.

Laredo Next: Jack Larson, Noel Niell, George Reeves

Zmed, Adrian

Johnson, Hildy -- Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940)

The Cross of Lorraine

I guess Hepburn could have rehashed her ending from The Children's Hour, rebuffed Higgins and left him hanging.

Clip from the restoration documentary

I've always thought the best ending for the movie version would've been if after Higgins says to Eliza "Where the devil are my slippers?", Eliza would reply with something like: "Your SLIPPERS?! Excuse me sir, but are your legs broken or something? I'm sure you can find them yourself!", and said not in a Cockney accent but in the more uppercrust accent she now has. And then fade out as we see Higgins smiling with the thought that he truly had made a better, more confident and more desirable person of Eliza, and he then goes to retrieve his own slippers. (...in this way, many more people would be satisified with the ending I believe, and maybe even G.B. Shaw himself)

Wow. Talk about blinders! Didn't recall when Higgins first ordered Eliza to fetch his slippers, she (as Higgins put it) "Shied" them at him and stormed out, eh? But realizing she had fallen in love with him, she returned, and a more docile but still mischievous Higgins, then asked, "Where the devil are my slippers?" After all, Higgins did realize his dislike of living without her, And too, realizing his reluctance to jeopardize her walking out again, would surely do what he could to make her happy, as she would for him which people in love are wont to do. Look at it these couple of ways... In MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, Michael Constantine, as the Father, keeps harping on the notion that he is "the head of the family". And later in the movie, his wife(Lainie Kazan) lets it be known... "He may be the HEAD of the family, but I'm the NECK. And the neck can turn the head in any direction it wants!" My wife would often joke about, "We share things, He gives me his money, and I give him a headache!" But too, goes on, "But he's not stingy about it. He usually gives it back!" Sepiatone

I've been a fan of hers for almost 50 years. I think there are quite a few Britcom fans here. I have known Felicity Kendal (and Paul Eddington, and Richard Briers and Penelope Keith) since I first saw Good Neighbors/The Good Life back in mid-1970s on KERA in Dallas. It's still my favorite British sitcom, though Fawlty Towers comes close. Felicity was also in another sitcom, Solo in the early 1980s, and following the Miss Marple/Jessica Fletcher route, Rosemary & Thyme in the early 2000s. She was also very active in radio, as BBC radio (BBC 3 and BBC4) still air radio dramas, comedies and soap operas, something that vanished from US airwaves in the 1960s. Unfortunately, I've never been able to catch her on the stage. Here's an interesting interview of her from 2012 from BBC Four Television.