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They Drive By Night (1940)

Torrid Zone (1940) Lee Donley: Mister, the stork that brought you must have been a vulture. Footlight Parade (1933) Vivian Rich : It's three o'clock in the morning - where do you want me to go? You cheap stenographer... Nan Prescott: Outside, countess. As long as they've got sidewalks, you've got a job.

Another one from "The Thin Man:" Nick. "I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune." Nora: "I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids." Nick. It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids."

Lost Horizon (both versions) And Then There Were None and Ten Little Indians (prefer early version with Walter H.) Murder on the Orient Express (the one made circa 1974 and A.F. as Hercule Poirrot) The Gods Must Be Crazy

On Svengoolie tomorrow, April 10, 2021: Another film from that great year, 1957, this is an intelligent film which ends with a message about man's place in the universe.

This is a reply to @Janet0312 but I screwed up my quote. She said, "Well, I can't find a schedule for these shows. They show up on PBS periodically, not really scheduled and I find that I'm watching part two or part six and miss out on a lot. It's infuriating really." I found out about it by watching Jeopardy! Monday evening, where the documentary was a category with clues read by Ken Burns. A clever way to promote it, I thought. I pulled up the KERA schedule on my tablet and found it listed for a 9 o'clock start. PBS streams on Roku, but I don't know if this one is up there yet. If not, you can watch it here.

1931

Suzanne Pleshette

You're absolutely right, in my personal opinion. High-speed Internet service has become a "utility" that it's difficult to do without, just like electricity or water. This past year has proven that. How many kids would have had no school at all during this past year if broadband Internet service weren't available for remote learning? How many people would have been laid off from their jobs during this past year if Internet-based technology hadn't made it possible to work from home? Yet there are people out there -- kids and working folks -- who don't have sufficient Internet service for even such basics as school and a job. There are people who live just a short drive from my house who are in the shadow of mountains that block them from receiving even the so-so satellite-based Internet service that I'm complaining about. (Yes, those people -- and I -- chose to live where good Internet service wasn't available, but keep in mind that that wasn't an issue at all back when we bought our house.) And the folks who do have decent Internet service pay much higher prices than people in other countries do for comparable service, studies have shown. Something needs to be done about it, and I'm glad that there are some people in DC who want to do just that. The continuing existence of TCM and the possibility of streaming services taking over from cable/satellite are admittedly less serious issues than kids getting an education and people keeping their jobs. But TCM is one little piece of the world that makes life a whole lot better for a bunch of us. It's worth keeping.

Friday, April 9/10 12:45 a.m. Henry V (1944). Laurence Olivier film that was up for the 1946 Oscars.

Island of Lost Souls (1932) The Most Dangerous Game (1932) remote island

King Kong (Skull Island is pretty remote..) In the village of Bury on a remote Scottish island, Sally Field's mom discovers The Man From Planet X The Thing From Another World--arctic circle

this beautiful heartwarming actress passed away on April 3rd just six days ago.

Yeah, caught the tribute to her on MeTV the other day. Bummed me out too. As a fan of the comic strip, I sho' 'nuff became a fan of the TV show, and had a huge crush on her as well. I just know she's resting in peace. She wouldn't have it any other way. Sepiatone

I love the film Rebecca. This eerie gothic psychodrama has so much atmosphere. It was mentioned that Judith Anderson did a wonderful job playing the character of Mrs. Danvers (the housekeeper at Manderley who was obsessed with Rebecca). I can't agree more. I love how the entrances of Mrs. Danvers into scenes are filmed. She seems to just suddenly appear - almost noiselessly. It gives her an interesting ghost-like quality. I wonder if great "villains" in films (such as Mrs. Danvers) are almost more important to the impact of a film than the heroes? The scene where Danvers encourages the Fontaine character to end her life is very powerful. I also love George Sanders in his portrayal of the creepy, snobbish Jack Favell. I think Joan Fontaine gives a great performance as "I" in the film. I am currently reading the book "Rebecca" and Fontaine captures the young, insecure, shy character from the book very well. That said, I can understand that perhaps shy, sheepish characters are not necessarily a favorite with everyone. It was mentioned that other Hitchcock films are better than Rebecca and I agree but to be fair to Rebecca, that's putting the bar extremely high for comparison considering the brilliance of so many Hitchcock films. I have read that when Hitchcock was forced to collaborate with Selznick on this film it was a rough working relationship with Selznick trying to take control. I always wondered how the film would have turned out without Selznick's restraints on Hitchcock?

de Canterville, Lady Jessica -- Margaret O'Brien in The Canterville Ghost (1944)

OF MICE AND MEN (1939)

1930

Cary, Virgie - Shirley Temple in The Littlest Rebel

Here's another one from Torrid Zone. Stranded show girl Ann Sheridan and bandit George Tobias have adjacent jail cells when Tobias is released from his to face a firing squad. Tobias, slipping a ring off his finger to hand it to her: "Here, senorita, I give this to you. Where I am going I will not need it." Sheridan: "Afraid it will melt?"

Backus, Jim

One of my favorite snappy comebacks, but in this case more a self-deprecating one and not a witty barb directed at another, is from The Best Years of Our Lives. As the two recently discharged WWII veterans drive up in a cab and in front of the luxury apartment that one of them is returning to after the war's end... Fred Derry: "Wow! That's some quarters here, Sergeant! Were you a bootlegger before the war?" Al Stephenson: "Nothing so honorable. I'm a banker"

Attenborough, Richard

It mentioned an argument he had in Spain with John Dos Passos about keeping silent on the NKVD executions of those deemed insufficiently communist. Dos Passos' friend and translator José Robles was executed by the Stalinists and he wanted to expose their activities, while Hemingway thought it would be a bad career move that would anger the pro-communist East coast establishment. The film then mentioned when discussing Hemingway's trip to China that he had been asked by Moscow to provide information on the war with the Japanese, but said in the same breath that he gave them none.

Von Sydow, Max

GOING HIGHBROW (1935)

Curly: "Oo, 'Special delivery', huh?" - The Three Stooges, Sock-a-Bye-Baby Is it "After the Thin Man", where N&N go out to a New Year's Eve club, and Nick intrudes on a suspicious fight where one character is shoved into him?: Nick: "My, what BIG confetti they throw around here!"

AN EYE FOR AN EYE

1940

Wrote (I just counted them) 82 Perry Mason mysteries. They all begin - “The Case of . . . “

Treasury Department: Borderline (1950), Charade (1963) FBI: The House on 92nd Street (1945), The Street with No Name (1948)

This is one of the most entertaining threads I've run across in a long time (although there are many others). I'm not surprised that Groucho has been mentioned prominently. Here's a favorite of mine from A Night At The Opera: Groucho and Margaret Dumont are having dinner together in a restaurant. Waiter: Your check, sir. Groucho: Nine dollars and forty cents? This is an outrage. [Throws the check across the table to Margaret.] If I were you, I wouldn't pay it.

I'm sorry to see TCM Inner Circle go away for the same reason as other folks -- it was focused on TCM and gave members a chance to weigh in on pending issues that would affect TCM. (For example, when Eddie Muller's then-nameless noir segment was about to start, they asked Inner Circle about the possible names for it. "Noir Alley" was born.) I started to apply for the Warner A-List group because I was curious about what it might entail. I got to the last step and then quit because out of the membership survey's many, many questions, they never asked about TCM even once (if I remember correctly). They devoted plenty of survey questions to comic book movies (DC was mentioned specifically) and various streaming services, however. No thank you. To move TCM to an all-streaming service would be to destroy much of what makes TCM what it is and what has given the channel a loyal fan base. How many other channels have a strong enough fan base to have annual film festivals and cruises? TCM is a curated presentation of classic movies, hosted by knowledgeable people who give context to what you're about to see, and often features enlightening themes. There are numerous short subjects, interview segments, and other featurettes that provide additional context and entertainment. Without all of that, TCM would just be a bunch of old movies that you could watch any old time. (Not that I'm putting down that kind of choice -- I have a huge collection of movies on discs that I can watch any time I want to, and services like the Criterion Channel serve the same need in part.) And it's a bit galling that, once again, millions of people would be left behind entirely if TCM went away as a cable/satellite channel. I don't use streaming services because I can't -- I have no choice. Some of us -- me included -- have substandard Internet service that's insufficient to support streaming. And because we live in rural or semi-rural areas, there's no other Internet service available. The only way I can see TCM is on a satellite video service; our Internet service, which is also satellite-based, apparently doesn't have the capacity to stream video content effectively. (When we tried it one time, all we got was constant buffering.) If you take away TCM as part of our satellite video service -- or you get rid of that whole satellite service -- you lose me as a customer entirely because I can't just move over to streaming. I hope that doesn't happen because I have no place else to go. (One possible factor that might keep TCM on our satellite video service is that AT&T owns both.) Look, I know things change, and I've definitely benefited from technological developments. There was a time not that long ago when we had no satellite-based video or Internet service. We had s-l-o-w dial-up Internet service and could only watch over-the-air local TV channels. Technology improved things for us, and I'm grateful. (Indeed, I've spent a long, interesting career in the technology world -- which is kind of ironic, given that we haven't fully benefited from that world.) But I don't want to be left behind with no TCM because no one is interested in offering us an adequate Internet service -- which I would gladly pay for.

I wonder if the exec was Harry Cohn. She was a Columbia Pictures contractee in the late 40s and early 50s, before she started doing television work.

I never saw her play any other character, but she was a great TV wife and mom. I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who mistook her for Janet Leigh.

Star Wars: (Luke Skywalker opens the door to Leia's cell) Leia: "Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?"

This 1932 oil portrait of Bela Lugosi, portraying a confident, sophisticated, sartorially impressive artist at the peak of his career, hung in the actor's home until his death. The portrait would remain the same but the increasingly destitute, narcotics addicted actor would dramatically change over the years. Even after his splendid return performance as Dracula in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948 there was no demand for his film services and the final projects of his career would be in dire Grade Z Ed Wood productions, with their "so bad they're good" camp appeal today, not the way to recall one of the most famous horror stars of them all. 1955, in a sanatarium, one year before his death. From the heights to the depths over two decades. The Lugosi portrait, by the way, was sold at auction in 2004.

Prince Philip, husband of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 99 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/prince-philip-husband-britain-s-queen-elizabeth-ii-dies-99-n1258159

2 of my favorite wisecracks ever!

THE WAGONS ROLL AT NIGHT (1941)

Marooned 1969 ( NASA) Scorpio 1973 ( CIA) In Plain Sight ( US Marshalls) Criminal Minds ( FBI) tv shows

Ames, Flo - played by Sylvia Miles in Zero to Sixty

Love this! Much more gruesome and totally du Maurier.

If Olivia told the publisher she wouldn't say little to nothing about her relationship with Joan then it is understandable why the publisher would cancel any book deal. I'm not saying that Olivia has to throw tons of dirt on Joan, or any dirt at all, but any book from her about her life can't just ignore what happened, especially given the fact that Joan was also a major star and celebrity. Oh well; I would have been very interested to hear Olivia's side of her relationship with John Huston, but again, only if Olivia was able to be fairly transparent. Again, I'm not looking for dirt but instead just the perspective of the other-one-involved. Last year I read Courage and Art a bio about John Huston and found the "take" on Olivia fascinating. But of course that was mostly Huston's take on their relationship.

Betty Grable: Betty and her cat!!!

Episode 3, "The Blank Page" begins with Hemingway's adventure as a war correspondent who also, despite the Geneva Convention's proscriptions, participated in the conflict as a combatant. He followed the 22nd Infantry Regiment, whose commander, Buck Lanham, would become a lifelong friend. During this time he suffered two more concussions before returning to help liberate Paris, where he was joined by Mary Welsh, who would become, however reluctantly due to his drinking and quick temper, his fourth and last wife. He would also witness scenes of wartime horror in the Hürtgen Forest. We learn more detail of his marital bedroom proclivities involving gender reversal. Maybe he enjoyed being the passive partner, I don't know, but it doesn't seem to be anything he took great care to hide. We also learn of his son Gregory's proclivity for cross dressing. Gregory would later be arrested in a Los Angeles ladies room dressed as a female, and still later would undergo a sex change operation, though this is not mentioned. The word schizophrenia is mentioned when his son Patrick is diagnosed, and treated with shock therapy, foreshadowing Hemingway's own medical treatment in the years prior to his death. After his marriage to Mary, the familiar pattern of spousal abuse appears, only with a new physical component. His tales become taller and his sexual adventures involve a teenage prostitute, and the company of a young woman he met in Venice, Adriana Ivancich, an 18 year-old he asked to call him, at 50, Papa. He would ask her to marry him, he told her, if he weren't certain she would say no. He would suffer yet another concussion (I lost count, but he rivals Howard Hughes in this area) when he had a fall on his boat. Throughout this episode we see him drinking more and more, later taking pills, and we are often reminded of his father's suicide. Mary said she felt she was watching him disintegrate. His long awaited war novel, Across the River and Into the Trees, was published to unkind reviews, and critics suggested his best writing was behind him. Around that time, his publisher sent him a galley of From Here to Eternity, with a request that he provide a blurb. Instead, Hemingway responded with a particularly vicious diatribe that scholar Marc Dudley suggests he must have known would be widely read one day. In it, he called the author a coward who possessed the psychotic's urge to kill himself. We learn of a little game he would play in front of friends that involved putting a shotgun to his mouth and pulling the trigger, only to make a clicking sound. When Adriana and her mother visited Hemingway at his home in Cuba, he was inspired by her, energized someone said, as if she were a muse, and in the space of eight weeks, he wrote The Old Man and the Sea. It was widely praised by critics. Indeed Mario Vargas Llosa tells us it his his favorite Hemingway novel, while Edna O'Brien, who up to this point has spoken highly, dismisses it impatiently as "schoolboy writing." Hemingway returned to Africa where he would survive two airplane crashes in two days. The first of which prompted headlines around the world announcing his death, while the second resulted in still another head injury, after he butted it repeatedly and with enough force to open a door to escape a burning plane. His head injuries by then, compounded with his drinking, were taking their toll. After he won the Nobel, he agreed to a television interview on the condition the questions would be submitted beforehand, and his answers could be read off cue cards. The film is shown of him reading aloud in a grade schooler's cadence, even pronouncing audibly the words "comma" and "period." It is difficult to watch. Thereafter, Hemingway began but did not finish A Moveable Feast, where he wrote harshly of former friends Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein, and he continued to work on The Garden of Eden, even while knowing it would be too sexually frank to publish, at least in his lifetime. Of the revolution in Cuba, he said he was convinced of its "historical necessity," not foreseeing perhaps that it might cost him his Cuban home and everything in it, which after the Bay of Pigs, it did. Still, he'd had the foresight to buy a home in Ketchum, Idaho, where he spent his final days. Treatments at the Mayo, ostensibly for his blood pressure but actually for his depression, followed and then, in the midst of alcohol abuse, over-medication with pills, and ever-increasing paranoia, the inevitable and pitiable end came. The room, or vestibule as it is described, where he pulled the trigger is shown, followed by the newscast of Edwin Newman delivering the news that Hemingway had "killed himself, the sheriff says, accidentally." Even knowing it was coming, I found it tragic and, like all suicides, pathetic. I believe he knew he was losing the abilities to do the things he wanted to do with his life, and when it became clear that he no longer could live it on his terms, he ended it in the manner he had rehearsed. This was not I think one of Burns' more compelling or entertaining works, but I found it worthwhile, even if I'm not, as I expected I would be, eager to read more Hemingway.

TO SIR WITH LOVE (1967)

I've lived in West Hollywood since 1985 and would be hard put to tell who I haven't seen from the film business. But as a waiter at Fred Segal's, I got to meet one of my idols and she chatted and signed a picture for me. One of my co-workers saved her cigarette stubs, which were stained with her lipstick, and gave them to me. I know...ick. But I still have them.

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."

An early behind-the-scenes shot of the proposed but never filmed sequel, Planet of the Munchkin Apes, perhaps??? (...well, it's either that, or who knew Maurice Evans was such a small little guy off screen?)