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Lately I've been watching a DVD box set of The Untouchables TV series from the late '50s and early '60s. There is a lot of great character work in the show by Hollywood veterans and I noticed, in particular, the contributions in six different episodes of character actor Nehemiah Persoff. Incredibly he will turn 102 this August and I thought it would be nice to pay a brief tribute to him while he was still with us. Persoff's first film work was in The Naked City in 1948. He would later play a gangster's accountant in The Harder They Fall, Bogart's last film, and, most memorably, would be Little Napoleon in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot. Can anyone forget him in that film with his Mussolini-like bald head and manner, booming voice ("You mean you missed them TWICE!?!") and hearing aids which he conveniently turned down when anyone was getting shot in the same room with him. Years later he would play Streisand's father in Yentl. Persoff's TV credits, though, seem almost endless, ranging over a half century from 1949 to 2003. Among the countless series in which he made appearances were The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Playhouse 90 (in one episode he actually did play Mussolini). Route 66, Wagon Train, Naked City, Rawhide, Burke's Law, Ben Casey, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Big Valley, Time Machine, Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, Wild Wild West, It Takes A Thief, Mission Impossible, Flying Nun, Bill Cosby Show, Adam 12, Mannix, Marcus Welby, Gunsmoke, Barney Miller and, well, the list goes on and on. Persoff could play it big, larger than life and, yes, at times, a little hammy. But he could, in the true tradition of great character actors, also play it small (that is fully demonstrated by some of the contrasting characters he played in The Untouchables). He's a true acting veteran who has been with us for years, even if he never had a big star name. Everyone who has seen movies or television from the 50s though to the '80 will surely recognize his face. As Little Napoleon in Some Like It Hot. He even got George Raft and his hoods to rise to their feet. ("You too, Spats. UP!!!). Harder They Fall The Untouchables Gilligan's Island Mission Impossible Barney Miller Yentl Star Trek The Next Generation Persoff has turned to painting watercolours since retirement in 2003 with 206 acting credits So let's hear it for a great acting veteran while he's still with us . . .

Right now on Twitter, TCM is in the process of revealing this year’s lineup based on people asking if their favorites are included. 1 Bette Davis 2 Richard Burton 3 Kim Novak 4 Louis Armstrong 5 Margaret Rutherford 6 Robert Mitchum 7 Abbot & Costello 8 Esther Williams 9 Kay Francis 10 George Segal 11 Kathryn Grayson 12 Ramon Novarro 13 Jane Fonda 14 Gregory Peck 15 Judy Garland 16 Robert Young 17 Gloria Grahame 18 Robert Redford 19 Setsuko Hara 20 Van Heflin 21 Katharine Hepburn 22 Tyrone Power 23 Eve Arden 24 Maurice Chevalier 25 Jane Wyman 26 Tony Randall 27 Merle Oberon 28 Lee Marvin 29 Ingrid Bergman 30 James Cagney 31 Fredric March

Father Goose (1964) A rude, foul-mouthed, drunken filthy beast is forced by circumstances to be the father figure for seven young ladies when he does not want to be a father figure or a brother figure or an uncle figure or a cousin figure and instead intends on being only a total stranger figure. This is an unshaven, cheaply-dressed, scotch-swilling Cary Grant with nary a nightclub in sight. He retains every bit of his grand comedic timing and simple good humor throughout. Leslie Caron is his goody-two-shoes foil. She does not sing nor dance. Her comedic timing is perhaps not as well tuned as his but she acquits herself well as straightman for many amusing situations. I love very much how she is bitten by a snake and the snake dies! Trevor Howard is perfect as a senior officer who knows when to not be officious. This is far from a fast-paced comedy chock full of gags. It is a movie for when you wish to indulge in the company of good-hearted and loving people who are at war with each other. 9.6/10 It is available for watching for free on: PlutoTV. I have not found it in any of their menus but the search function knows that it is there.

I loved this film when TCM showed it when Ray Milland was SOTM. Paulette Goddard is a delight, she and Milland make a great couple, and the supporting cast is strong.

A Farewell to Arms (1932) Young and Innocent (1937) Double Dynamite (1951) Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) Le Bonheur (1965) Woyzeck (1979) Misa and the Wolves (2003) Ratter (2015)

The Mad Miss Manton The Hound of the Baskervilles Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Maybe my favorite part of the movie is Wagner. The clue for the newspaper man thinking that Norah might be innocent was the story regarding the music, changing from Nat Kind Cole to Richard Wagner. Interesting that they chose perhaps the most ethereally beautiful love theme in the world, Liebestod from "Tristan and isolde." The theme appears early but then is used rather extensively near the end when we see the real perpetrator going through the motions of suicide and later in a hospital bed and synchronized rather effectively (if not brilliantly) with the action on screen. Oh, come on, try and listen to some of this. Extraordinary! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLoHcB8A63M

Underworld (1927) Street Scene (1931) Our Daily Bread (1934) Rope (1948) Los Olvidados (1950) Pickup on South Street (1953) Before Sunset (2004) Wendy and Lucy (2008)

I mean also, c;mon, WHAT SIX YEAR OLD ISN'T GOING TO LOVE THIS?

Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen

I've always loved this song.

The Crystal Ball (1943) Highwater is a Texas town just outside of Waco which is just outside of Fort Worth. A hog farmer from just outside Highwater loses a beauty contest to a blonde and so flees to the big city with her entire fortune of thirty-eight cents in hopes of getting inside of something. A spunky old fortune teller sees something good in her future and agrees to help her. This is a perfectly wonderful bit of fluff! Ray Milland is the good-lucking and slightly befuddled male caught between two women. Paulette Goddard as the transplanted hog farmer is one of the women. Virginia Field is the elegant and sophisticated woman who had him first and wants to keep him. The others in the cast are superb. Gladys George is the fortune teller with a good heart and the mind, soul and greedy fingers of a great confidence woman. Cecil Kellaway is her friend, co-conspirator and neighbor in the side-show. William Bendix is Milland's chauffer and general factotum. I found this to be a significant cut above the general run of romantic comedies of the time. Some of the plot elements are slightly implausible but none require a great effort to ignore in light of the fun situations they create. Closed-Captioning indicates the score moves from: "whimsical music" to "devious music" to "exotic music". 8.5/10 We watched it on: Amazon Prime Video but it is listed as being available also on: TubiTV.

The veteran actress and acting mentor Joanne Linville, who appeared in more than 100 television series and motion pictures, died Sunday in Los Angeles at the age of 93. The cause of her death was not immediately disclosed. She is best remembered for her groundbreaking performance in the 1968 "Star Trek" episode "The Enterprise Incident," in which she played the series' first female Romulan commander. Linville also co-created The Stella Adler Studio of Acting in Los Angelesw and taught there as a master coach until two years ago. In 2011, she co-wrote the book "Joanne Linville's Seven Steps to an Acting Craft (with John Deck). In a statement to USA Today, Linville's family said she "lived a full life. One whose spirit, passion for art and life was an inspiration to all who had the pleasure of knowing her. A loving mother and proud grandmother." Linville co-starred with James Gregory in "The Passersby," an unforgettable 1961 episode of the CBS anthology series "The Twilight Zone." Written by the show's creator Rod Serling, the installment featured Linville as Lavinia Godwin, a Civil War-era Southern woman who watches people walking down the road past her burned-out mansion. In "Running Scared," a Season 3 episode of the ABC hit drama series "The Fugitive," Linville played the wife of the district attorney (James Daly) who prosecuted the convicted murderer and escaped prisoner Dr. Richard Kimble (series star David Janssen). When Kimble returns to his hometown after the death of his father, Linville's character helps the wanted man escape from a tight spot. The episode originally aired on February 22, 1966. In "The Enterprise Incident," which was the second episode of Season 3 of NBC's "Star Trek," Linville played a Romulan commander whose name we never hear. She arrests Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and fancies Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) after the USS Enterprise deliberately intrudes into Romulan space. Written by Dorothy "D.C." Fontana, the episode originally aired on September 27, 1968. Linville guest starred in the Season 3 episode of NBC's "Columbo" titled "Candidate for Crime." She played the wife of a ruthless U.S. Senate candidate (Jackie Cooper) who tries to gain an edge by manufacturing death threats against himself. When one of the ploys results in his campaign manager's death, Lt. Columbo of the LAPD (series star Peter Falk) arrives on the scene. Directed by Boris Sagal (whose daughter Katey played a campaign worker), the episode originally aired on November 4, 1973. The 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born" starred Barbra Streisand as Esther Hoffman, a struggling singer who became a star after she married the rock star John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson). As her star climbed, his career declined -- thanks in part to his alcoholism. Linville (pictured behind Streisand) co-starred as her friend Freddie Lowenstein. The actor-director Paul Mazursky (at right) played agent Brian Wexler. That's Streisand's sister, singer Roslyn Kind, beneath the arrow as a guest at the Grammy Awards. In a 2020 Variety piece, the three-time Oscar-nominated actor Mark Ruffalo recalled how Linville made an impact on his life at The Stella Adler Studio. "I was living in San Diego and basically just surfing and smoking weed and going nowhere really fast," he recalled. "Someone told me I should go study there so out of my desperation and my secret of wanting to be an actor, I took the train up there for an interview with my teacher Joanne Linville." He said Linville interviewed him for about 10 minutes. "She was like, 'You belong here, darling.' I never had anyone tell me I belong somewhere. I had never been so excited about learning in my entire life as I embarked on that journey." From 1962 to 1973, Linville was married to the actor-turned-director Mark Rydell ("The Rose," "On Golden Pond"). Their children, Amy (pictured below with Linville) and Christopher, also became actors. Mark A. Altman @markaaltman Saddened to hear about the passing of the great #JoanneLinville. Perhaps the best thing about #StarTrek's third season. Commander of not one, but three Roman flagships, and custodian of the cloaking device and, for a time, Mr. Spock's heart. 6:03 PM · Jun 21, 2021·Twitter Web App Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo The greatest actress I have ever known and the greatest teacher and mentor I could have ever hoped for. I will love you forever, Joanne. Thank you for all. RIP, great one. Joanne Linville, Actress on ‘Star Trek’ and ‘The Twilight Zone,’ Dies at 93 Joanne Linville, a character actress who had memorable guest-starring turns on Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 93. hollywoodreporter.com 11:51 AM · Jun 22, 2021·Twitter Web App

SING, BABY, SING

Believe me, she has many "non-fans"!

DITTO. Couldnt stand her on SNL. And was amazed when she left and actually had a movie career! (Needless to say, I haven't seen any of them!)

You would not, could not? Kristen Wigg is so-so. If it weren't for Kate McKinnon that show wouldn't have been watchable since the Billie Crystal/Eddie Murphy (Gumby) days.

TINA FEY Another one who chaps my ****. A lot of her work is extremely problematic. Oddly enough, one of the weird things about living in the upside down world of the Trump presidency was that for the first time in 20 years “Saturday night live” managed to (on occasion) be pretty funny. (At least their political sketches) i even laughed out loud a handful of times. I’m sure it’s back to being the worst thing ever though, and to be perfectly honest with you I’m fine with that. If it means never ever going back through the looking glass again then I will gladly take my SNL not at all funny and my President not a Fascist.

Michael Bates ( played Field Marshall Montgomery in Patton) next: Johnny Belinda 1948

Yes, the Bennetts were an acting family. Though I think the mother kept her maiden name as her stage name.

Applegate, Susan--Ginger Rogers in The Major and the Minor

I had learned of NEHEMIAH PERSOFF's longevity last year... after I watched him in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Love him!

Valley, Mark

ROFL!

He's sure made his presence known over the years. And he's 101 years old now? God bless him! Sepiatone

Underwood, Blair

Middle of the Night

I was too slow to guess on these. Probably the only one I could have identified without being told the answers is Valley Girl, which I'm actually not entirely sure I've seen all the way through. I think I rented it from Blockbuster around 1991 or so, but I don't think I finished it. I just listed The 13th Letter as a movie I'd like to see included for a potential Linda Darnell SUTS day after reading a plot description on imdb, but I haven't seen it. The only one of these movies I'm absolutely sure I've seen from beginning to end is Jacob's Ladder, a really depressing head trip of a movie. Even after the big twist was revealed, the movie didn't jolt me out of the funk it had put me in. So, I guess I've just seen one. MAYBE I saw Ladder 49 in the theaters. It stirs up some deja vu feelings when I read the plot description on imdb, but I'm truly uncertain, so I won't list it. The transformation of Anthony Hopkins in that last picture is truly uncanny.

"Some people might say ... ... but I say .... "

Just saw him as the murder victim in a classic 1976 episode of NBC's "Columbo" titled "Now You See Him." The killer was a magician (played by Jack Cassidy) who did the evil deed while an audience thought he was onstage chained inside a box.

Cool Hand Luke (1967) Next: rolling downhill

Wasn't Esther Williams honored with a SUTS day in recent years? It seems she has three birthdays a year with TCM having days where four or five of her movies are shown.

Last night I watched **** '98, catching up with the only John Waters film I haven't seen. I was braced for a lot of obnoxious bad taste but was happily surprised to find minimal offenses. Still not a film for the kiddies or grandma, but most offenses were tolerable instead of shocking. (wait-I'm "grandma"!) More along the lines of HAIRSPRAY than MONDO TRASHO, John Waters shows his unique personality throughout this story in a more restrained, mainstream way using charactors & situations most can relate to. It's the story of a young adult named Peck er who has a sunny personality and a hobby of photographing everyone he sees with a second hand camera. As a former photographer, I saw glaring issues with his technique and for the volume of snaps, no contact sheets. The question of buying 35mm film & processing was answered by his dark room, but even that was a stretch. Peck er's girlfriend is played by personal fave Christina Ricci. I love how she fleshes out her role as Laundry Mat owner (?) with a sense of importance & dedication most viewers would find over-seriously silly. Peck's Mom played by the wonderful Mary Kay Place (does she ever age?) is similarly dedicated to her second hand thrift shop, clothing the homeless for 25¢. Peck's Dad runs a failing dive bar and his best friend is a goofy kleptomaniac. There are too many supporting charactors to mention, but the common theme is they all work lower level independent jobs that require personality & unique "people" skills. No one works for any big corporations or chains. (yay!) A snooty art gallery director is in town and "discovers" Peck's photos and immediately organizes a NYC gallery show. The photos are a hit with the condescending super cool art crowd because of their depiction of what they see as trashy people/situations (culturally challenged is their term) Peck photographs those elitists at his Gallery Show and then has his own Gallery showing in his home town of Baltimore (where else?) where they are appalled to see themselves depicted as the "trash". OK, so the film is not for everybody. There are no big laughs, lots of weird absurdity and some gratuitous nudity. But at it's core it's a loving charactor study of what makes people "real" and who are posers, it's John Waters. If you like his work, this one will resonate because it has a genuine message that many can relate to. It's a quick moving 90 minutes, the way a film should be. Note: when the NYC art crowd comes to Baltimore there are several shots of Baltimore row houses. I believe one of the blocks shown was Johnny Eck's house. I completely understand John Waters' love for Baltimore, it's one of my favorite cities.

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Glad to see Jane Fonda has a day this year. I recently re-watched KLUTE. Wow! Her performance in that movie is one of the best ever captured on film. At one point she asked director Alan Pakula to let her out of her contract and get Faye Dunaway for the role instead because Fonda didn't think she could pull it it off. But, man, did she ever! I also hope TCM airs BARBARELLA on her day. I never get tired of that one. It's good see Robert Redford is being honored. I think this is the second time he's had a day. If TCM is able to get BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, I wouldn't be surprised if it airs on both Fonda's and Redford's day. I won't be surprised if WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF is shown on both Richard Burton's and George Segal's day. Ramon Novarro is also a favorite. I much prefer the silent BEN-HUR with Navarro to the later sound version.

Ditto, and GLADYS GEORGE is a HOOT in a turban!!!

Tues., 6-22 (times ET) 10:00 pm Twilight for the Gods (1958) 1h 59m | Adaptation In the South Pacific, against the advice of the shipping clerk, Mrs. Charlotte King books passage on the first possible ship leaving port, a ramshackle brigantine named the Cannibal that is headed to Mexico. .......... https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/94129/twilight-for-the-gods#synopsis.. Director Joseph Pevney, James C. Havens... Cast Rock Hudson, Cyd Charisse, Arthur Kennedy 12:30 am The Mark of the Renegade (1951) 1h 21m | Action In the early 1800's, after California became a territory of the newly born Republic of Mex... see: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/82935/the-mark-of-the-renegade#synopsis Director Hugo Fregonese, Bill Cody, Wil... Cast Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, J. Carrol Naish

THE I DON'T CARE GIRL (1953)

Hughes, Mary Beth

I like the idea of a whole day of Margaret Rutherford. Most of these are pretty expected names though. I just hope they can get Paramount to loan out no Way to Treat a Lady for George Segal's day....

I've not watched an entire episode of SNL since about 1980 or so. When Fridays started on ABC, most of my friends started watching that instead. And then SCTV. I never went back to SNL. I would watch parts of an episode occasionally, but I'd never sit through an entire 90 minutes.

Davis, Jim

Regardless of what one thinks about Rex Reed, he got a good one in on that film. Anyway, as soon as I found out about the movie's horrific twist, even before the film opened, I started blabbing about it on the internet. Got me into a lot of hot water, and the controversy was clung to me to this day..... it just rubbed me the wrong way.....

With the female director (and no ponderous Zack Snyder co-scripting as lifted up the first film's gravitas), they were trying to depict Wiig's character as both the "Nerdy scientist turned villain"--in the spirit of Jim Carrey from Batman Forever, Uma Thurman from Batman & Robin, and Jamie Foxx from The Amazing Spiderman 2--AND Diana's chik-flik "Unliberated best friend who's jealous of our heroine's active/self-confident sense of identity, and makes bad decisions trying to grab a piece of it for herself". Why they got a bad overpraised post-Tina-Fey 10's female SNL comic to play a major DC Comics villain was more likely the latter, than a combination of the two. If you meant why they're trying to make Wiig's career happen, that's unfortunately a product of her trying to make her own career happen, as we saw from Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021). (I remember the B&SGtVDM trailer was so convinced that we KNEW and loved who these characters were already, I thought, "I'm sorry, have we met? Are they supposed to be some running current SNL sketch, or some popular Australian sitcom, or something??")

Think I would pick one the classic 4- Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds or North By Northwest. For me it was Psycho when I was 12. Probably the first B&W film I ever watches as well. Hitchcock films can drag at certain points (looking at you Birds) or be too wordy for the average film fan, but I think Psycho is one that holds people's attention very well.

Always interesting when an African-American actor was accorded a legitimate death scene in that era, which is one reason I chose it. Ingram is probably most familiar from his larger-than-life roles as the genie in The Thief of Badgad (1940) and Lucifer Jr. in Cabin in the Sky (1943), as well as Jim in the Mickey Rooney version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939). Ingram also died onscreen in Anna Lucasta (1959).

O'Neal, Patrick

Beverly Lunsford was in The Intruder (1962) with William Shatner. William Shatner was in The Outrage (1964) with Paul Newman. Next: Jeremy Irons

16 BLOCKS

(Another) Good Thread ToTo ,! ... 👏👏👏🥂👏👏 _ Two IMMEDIATELY Comes to Mind... .. ...Though, - --- ..im Not (So) Sure this first one is Neccesarily /"Universally" Considered a Classic.. - John Mills, and Madam Dorothy McGuire (Sorry. ..i Cheat,.) ,in Swiss Family Robinson... . - Gary Cooper, And, (*ironically enough.. lol); the Lovely Dorothy McGuire ,in Friendly Persuasion... . ... .. ..... Ahnnnd.. ..i Might Very Well Return with +More/ ,Additional Paternal (and Perhaps the Occassional Maternal) Nominee(s) as More Invade my brain .. (already have come back to add and edit, once.. now... 😂)