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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/11/2021 in all areas

  1. I have quite a bit of memorabilia but since she was honored this week by TCM. I have this fantastic photo of EleanorParker by George Hurrell for Esquire magazine issue of May 1942.I have the magazine and the printing proof.I have it in a frame -museum quality etc.I spent good money on special photos in my collection.Parker was 20 years old and just started in film,the display was trifold.It is the most beautiful photo I have ever seen of her.
    6 points
  2. In MARY OF SCOTLAND, it would have been cool to see Bette Davis as Queen Elizabeth in that one, if only to see that one standout scene between her and Katharine Hepburn's Mary Stuart. For that one scene alone, I would have loved to have seen my two favorite actresses engage in such a challenging, verbal duel. Would have made the confrontation all the more dramatic.
    4 points
  3. Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) The Queen (2006) Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
    4 points
  4. IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD
    4 points
  5. I'm a big fan of the channel, the current hosts (especially Eddie Mueller) and the shift toward looking at film through a more contemporary international lens. So, in general I like the current changes. However, the new aesthetic changes are unpleasant. I teach art and design for a living. If this was a student project, there are many things I would flag for comments and revisions. It seems to me the driving force behind this was to make it look different. Often when a good design is being redeveloped, there is the temptation to make it look as different as possible. This sometimes results in choices that are not necessarily good or strong, because good choices might align it too close to the original design. The problem TCM has is that it's previous design was well-considered, effective, APPROPRIATE TO THE SUBJECT MATTER and quite beautiful. As far as I can tell, we have something that is supposed to look "modern" and colorful. It looks to me that it is just bright, generic and borrowing of some contemporary design trends that are not necessarily that appealing, just bold. Design is meant to be aesthetically interesting and also embrace what a company or brand is trying to convey. I'm not sure how many of these changes do either. I get the reference to bright technicolor films - but the actual colors they have chosen do not make me think of that at all. My biggest issues are several. First, the TCM logo is different, but it just looks boring. While there is a professed logic for it, I don't understand how it actually translates to what they actually created. Second, using bold colored borders when showing black and white trailers and ads is a TERRIBLE idea. It creates too much emphasis on the border, so it shifts the eye away from the movie and creates a layering effect that is just awful. Third, why are the sets meant to evoke a generic loft somewhere? Wouldn't sets that echoed and played with Movie themes or tropes be more fun? Perhaps a little theatricality would be more appropriate than what I might expect for a set for someone selling medications to the elderly. Often what has to happen for rebranding to be successful is an interim re-design. The first new design embraces difference. When it gets redesigned again in the future, there will be a desire to reconnect with the past (ie. the previous good design). And there is less of a need to be "different" in the same manner. One can hope this current design is just short-lived one. I agree with what a lot of you have said that it doesn't seem clear that they had any idea for what they wanted other than make it bright and make it different. And who is this meant for? I'm not sure who the audience for a redesign is? Doctors have a mantra - do no harm. Designers should too. I'm a long time fan in my 40s who is not averse to design changes. But dear lord, if you're going to make changes, have some sort of idea of what you are trying to do in mind. Or at least a REALISTIC view of who your audience is. Still watching, but definitely disappointed - and considering what kind of grade I would give it if I had to grade a student who did this for my class...
    4 points
  6. I'm curious if anyone else has come across some random or interesting old Hollywood movie or actor related memorabilia that they just had to have. Share yours! I'll go first: 1) Might not necessarily be "old Hollywood" related however it's a great piece of Buster Keaton History. 😁 Original sheet music from 1902 depicting a very young Buster Keaton with his parents, aka The Three Keatons. :
    3 points
  7. Well, maybe for you, but I am a fairly minded open book type of person so I have no problem sharing some personal info. I have done so in the past here on the boards. It's not as if I am sharing financial info. I just think sharing personal info comparing what my wife and I have to go through to my close friend who passed away years ago is doing no harm. Just MHO. None of my wife's siblings have ever worked in the health field. Although her next to youngest sister's husband is a pharmacist. Unfortunately, he thinks he knows everything and tries to tell my wife the drugs she should be taking, or not.
    3 points
  8. Shine On My Shoes - Fred Astaire sings and dances with Leroy Daniels in the Arcade in NYC - The Band Wagon song sung in a Store in a movie
    3 points
  9. From September 11-14, 1921, the Poli ran Lying Lips, starring House Peters as Blair Cornwall and Florence Vidor as Nance Abbott. The film was released in January of 1921 at six to seven reels. Fragments are held in the Library of Congress. Plot: Nance Abbott, is a spoiled English girl. She becomes engaged to Willie Chase, who is twice her age. She flees to Canada to escape him. There, she meets Blair Cornwall, a Canadian rancher, and the two fall for each other. But because he is from a lower station in life, Nance keeps her distance. She sails back to England, but Blair is persistent and books travel on the same ship. The ship strikes a mine and is wrecked. Nance and Blair survive. Since both feel their days are numbered, they pledge their love for each other and declare themselves married in the sight of God. But then they are rescued, and Nance returns to her selfish ways. She decides to go ahead with her marriage to Chase. But at the altar, Nance confesses she is married to another in the eyes of God. She is reunited with Blair, who forgives the finally repentant Nance. The two sail off together. The stills below could not be placed in context. They show Vidor with Margaret Livingston (at left): To film the sinking ship scene, Director Thomas Ince used the battleship Minneapolis, which had six-inch guns. With the doomed ship anchored about five hundred yards away, the Minneapolis fired blank shells. Almost at the same instant, several magnesium powder shells were ignited on the derelict, creating the effect of a direct hit. The stills below show Ince directing Vidor and Peters for the shipwreck scene: The still below shows Ince with Vidor and the crew of the Minneapolis: Wid’s Daily praised the film, writing “stripped of all its splendor, lavish sets, and general atmosphere of the spectacular, “Lying Lips” would probably be called just a program picture because the story consists of just that sort of material. … But [it] is far from a program picture, for it has been made into an elaborate spectacle and has that quality which appeals from the standpoint of production. It’s always good to look at.” But Motion Picture News gave a lukewarm review, writing “the picture is mechanical and melodramatic and judged in this manner is a winner because of its spectacular appeal. … Would that the story might have equaled the production.” Several trade journals pointed out the implausibility of the scenes after the shipwreck; Peters is able to find a gas jet and make coffee for himself and Vidor. Florence Vidor’s husband, Director King Vidor, composed the song “Lying Lips,” in dedication to the film starring his wife.
    3 points
  10. Sunday, September 12/13 11:15 p.m. Big Fella (1937). A film Paul Robeson made in Britain. Margaret Rutherford has a small part. 3:15 a.m. Blind Chance (1981). Interesting Polish film with trio of ‘what if’ stories based on whether a man manages to catch a train or not. Made in 1981 but not released until 1987 as was the case with so many films from behind the iron curtain.
    3 points
  11. Not a lot of people ever call Robards "handsome." But you make a point of returning to this thread to do so a second time. Only now you're adding "very masculine" and "cool" as well now, I see. They're almost the words that someone with a fragile ego who thought he looked like the actor himself might use. Eh, kitten? So tell me, pooch, what do you think of the "handsome" Mr. Robards?
    3 points
  12. 3 points
  13. No Way Out (1950) Bonnie and Clyde (1967) The Misfits (1961) etc., etc., etc.......
    3 points
  14. TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT JURASSIC PARK MASTER AND COMMANDER Most westerns
    3 points
  15. Thoughts And Prayers. While, in the Entire Sceme of Things; She's A Newer Artist. This, Sounds Like it Could Be of Concern. Which i Hope is Pure Rubbish. https://pagesix.com/2021/09/10/kate-beckinsale-reportedly-rushed-to-hospital-in-las-vegas/
    2 points
  16. La Bronxita! So nice to see your thread bubbling with its trademark wit and humor. You did a great tribute for your Mom in creating this effervescent conversation. May it live on and on. P. S. I love Vertigo maybe as much for its flaws as for its virtues. I even bought a grey suit just like Madeleine’s. 😀Still, To Catch a Thief is my favorite Hitch.
    2 points
  17. Thanks for the reply. I'm trying to corroborate some things for myself, and I appreciate your openness and genuine response which is useful to me. I'm sorry to hear of this and I wish the two of you the best in your difficult times.
    2 points
  18. YOUNG VICTORIA VICTORIA AND ALBERT miniseries VICTORIA miniseries THE QUEEN Recent BBC series THE CROWN does Shakespeare’s histories in historical order with consistent cast like a regular series, starting with Ben Whishaw as RICHARD II, going through HENRY IV parts 1&2, HENRY V, HENRY VI parts 1,2&3, and ending with Benedict Cumberbatch as RICHARD III
    2 points
  19. I Loved You Wednesday (1933)
    2 points
  20. Jacques Bergerac Next: Co-starred with Zsa Zsa Gabor
    2 points
  21. Sunday September 12, 2021 Greece on TCM zorba the greek
    2 points
  22. Sissi (1955) Solomon and Sheba (1959) Cleopatra (1963) Lady Jane (1986) The Madness of King George (1994) Queen Margot (1994) Marie Antoinette (2006) The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) The King's Speech (2010) A Royal Affair (2013) Mini-series: Elizabeth R (1971)
    2 points
  23. Queen Christina 1933 The Scarlet Empress 1934 Victoria the Great 1937 The Mudlark 1950 Anne of the Thousand Days 1969 Mary Queen of Scots 1971
    2 points
  24. Essential: THE DESERT FOX: THE STORY OF ROMMEL (1951) TopBilled: I am not too well-versed on Rommel’s career or the German military strategies that were waged against the British and its allies during the second world war. But I don’t think a casual viewer watching this film needs to know all these things. The film is fairly easy to follow. Producer-writer Nunnally Johnson provides us with a nicely paced script, which is based on a biography about the famous field marshal of the third reich. The book was a bestseller and had been written by Lt. Col. Desmond Young. Young was a member of the British Indian Army who crossed paths with Rommel, and he appears as himself in this carefully mounted 20th Century Fox production. Key passages of the story are narrated by Fox contract player Michael Rennie, who is supposed to be speaking in Young’s “voice” since these are Young’s own studies and thoughts about Rommel. Young had interviewed Rommel’s widow Frau Lucie, played by Jessica Tandy, our focus this month. For her part, Tandy does an effective job conveying a housewife who stands by her man all the way, even if he is standing by Hitler and they have their doubts about Hitler. Lucie and Erwin Rommel are depicted as high-ranking members of the Nazi party who ironically oppose Nazism. This characterization by Young, which is developed through dialogue by Johnson, has led to a myth of Rommel which is a subject of considerable discussion. After all, this could be a postwar propaganda piece. A piece about a “good” German who was a close friend of Hitler’s in the early days and still led troops that defeated the Allied forces on several important battle fronts. But maybe it is easier to glorify the Rommels here, because we want to believe that there had to be at least one German officer and his wife who were not exactly Hitlerian puppets. One couple that was able to think critically and decide on their own terms not to support the barbarism of Der Fuhrer. Therefore, a major component of this film and its portrayals is that the Rommels are committing treason. However, it’s a form of treason that British and American movie audiences in 1951 would applaud. Part of the film’s purpose is to generate sympathy for the Rommels. And the way James Mason and Jessica Tandy choose to play their scenes does help elicit sympathy, especially when they are interacting with a doctor (Cedric Hardwicke) who wants them to endorse a plan to kill Hitler (Luther Adler). Going along with such a plan would undoubtedly put the Rommels at odds with their closest associates within the Nazi party. There is even a suggestion in an early scene that the Rommels’ son might be under the thumb of the Nazis, which would make him an enemy of his parents. This is a different sort of role for Tandy, certainly not like the venomous creature she played in A WOMAN’S VENGEANCE which we discussed last week. Also, she is the only credited female in the entire cast…though there is one uncredited woman with limited dialogue who plays the Rommels’ maid. Tandy gets a chance to stand out a bit because she is providing the only real vantage point for women that may be in the audience watching. Shot in a semi-documentary style, we get newly staged scenes intercut with the realia of newsreel footage…all of it emphasizing the seriousness of war. At first I found this a bit gimmicky and tedious, but as the story continued I decided that I liked the flavor of actual history that the news clips provide. Do I think the Rommels are heroes? Well, I don’t exactly think they are like the Von Trapps in THE SOUND OF MUSIC. But from a dramatic standpoint, I enjoy the irony their situation brings to the screen. Incidentally, the studio made a sequel two years later, THE DESERT RATS (1953), which is really more of a prequel. And in that later film Mason returns as Rommel, in active battle along the northern part of Africa. He speaks more German in the second film, and he is a bit more villainous. I guess we could say that’s because he hadn’t yet become a treasonous hero. *** Jlewis: “The truth is that a soldier has but one function in life, one lone excuse for his existence, and that is to carry out the order of his superiors. The rest, including government, is politics.” So was Rommel’s motto, even as he meets his fate with the hereafter, as a possible accomplice of Hitler’s failed assassination. It had been ages since I saw this one and I greatly enjoyed revisiting it, even though it is no masterpiece of wartime drama. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was, of course, the primary asset of the German army in The War a.k.a. “the most celebrated German soldier since word war one.” James Mason gives him quite the debonair persona with no German spoken, but sophisticated Queen’s English here. Even if he was technically The Enemy, the fact that he was critical of Hitler and may-or-may-not have been involved in an attempt on his leader’s life are enough to make him a complicated villain-hero of sorts that even Winston Churchill praises in the final moment before “The End.” This is a very Hollywoodized biopic that still makes sure you know which country is backing it (cue all of the flamboyant patriotic music whenever American and British soldiers are on screen and over an extensive five minutes of D-Day invasion newsreel clips) but tries to present the German people and their commander in a rather sympathetic light. This is significant since Germany was now split between the capitalistic west and the Soviet east at the time and all war movies needed a little objectivity to maintain the peace. Hitler himself, as portrayed with great hysteria by Luther Adler, was more the problem than the people under him (i.e. not that we today should hold this belief literally but it was the belief that Hollywood needed to promote at that time). Many like Rommel disliked being “clowns” in Hitler’s “circus.” Michael Rennie offers great narration as Lt. Col. Desmond Young of the opposing Allies side, trying to present this more temperate perspective of Germany’s greatest soldier and commander. One wonderful aspect to many of these post-war tributes filmed in black and white is that newsreel footage, all supplied by Fox Movietone of course, can be seamlessly edited in for additional realism. Only eagle eyes can detect where the Arizona and California desert locations change over to the mighty Sahara of the North Africa campaign. Since the success of THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET back in 1945, 20th Century Fox had made a trademark with a distinctive you-are-there look to their cinematography, regardless whether or not actual locations for the events depicted were used. It contrasted pleasingly with the more studio-bound look of the contemporary productions of MGM, Warners and Paramount that generally just inserted a couple location clips among shots done within a set of four walls. Two years later, Fox’s stock look would change again with the arrival of CinemaScope and a return to a more studio-like, less outdoorsy look. Occasionally, however, the studio and supervising director Henry Hathaway take the easy way out. The D-Day sequence is one primary example since little is done to recreate anything there with new sets and/or actors; instead we just get the usual extended stock footage. Curiously the recreation of the July 1944 bombing that almost kills Hitler was shot in the early spring with limited foliage on the trees and apparently the production crew was not terribly concerned about those details. An earlier key scene shows Rommel inspecting an Atlantic shoreline fortress in November 1943 and it is obvious Mason the actor is standing in front of a huge back-screen. Good thing Technicolor wasn’t used here to make it all the more obvious. A most British Cedric Hardwicke is top-billed as Dr. Karl Strölin, who was still alive at the time this film was made (and would still be around for a dozen more years) since he was considered one of the “lesser” Nazis in terms of his crimes. During Rommel’s occasional “ill health” retreats at a hospital, Strölin tries to coax him into the assassination plot. Also prominent in the cast is Everett Sloane, who is brilliantly straight-faced as Gen. Wilhelm Burgdorf delivering Rommel a choice of suicide or public execution after accusations have been made against him. Others featured here include Leo G. Carrol (a familiar face in many Hitchcock films) as Gerd von Rundstedt, with George Macready, Richard Boone and Eduard Franz among the other higher-ups in command. Jessica Tandy plays Rommel’s wife. To be honest, I don’t feel she is all that different in her performance here than in, say, THE BIRDS apart from the key shock scenes in that one. Don’t get me wrong. She is very professional in her role, if a bit poker-ish. My favorite moments of her are in the end when she realizes that she will never see her husband again and must pretend she doesn’t know for the sake of her own safety and that of their grown-up son.
    2 points
  25. The Hollywood Reporter @THR Disney announced they will give an exclusive theatrical run to the remaining titles on their 2021 slate, including #Eternals, #WestSideStory, #Encanto and more: http://thr.cm/ZtTmvS0 The studio also announced a slew of new and shifted release dates, including: #NightmareAlley - Dec. 17, 2021 The #BobsBurgers Movie - May 27, 2022 Untitled David O. Russell film - Nov. 4, 2022 #TheLittleMermaid - May 26, 2023 6:05 PM · Sep 10, 2021·SocialFlow
    2 points
  26. 2 points
  27. I think TV movies are fair game, provided it was not an uncredited appearance. See my note above.
    2 points
  28. Me too. The next one I saw him in was A Big Hand for the Little Lady and after that Once Upon a Time in the West. By then I was thinking "this guy is the best actor in the world!". The Cheyenne character is still my favorite from that Leone masterpiece.
    2 points
  29. In three days will be the 12th anniversary of the very first post on this thread, a host of encapsulated musings made by no other than the eponymous heroine of this very thread herself, Bronxgirl's mom. An auspicious inception of what is to come later on during those years. Reading this first posting, one notes the origin of the thread title. Origin stories are always fun. So a little of Bronxgirl's mother redux. I remember urging you, Barb, to make a chap book of your mom's sayings. I can imagine seeing something like this in some quaint little gift shop somewhere. But what the heck, they are here and to enjoy. Barb, I hope you don't mind if I put this out there. Just one of things here in our lives that ought not be forgotten. There quotes from you mom are very entertaining, on can see the honesty and charm, and many of them have the stamp of absolute truth. 🌷❤️🤗
    2 points
  30. I was always under the impression that we were posting the last theatrical movie. If not, then I'm sure several other names other than Van Heflin would have tv movies as their last credit. Maybe someone else can weigh in. I was thinking of Vic Morrow's last movie for Twilight Zone: The Movie. Your thread Mr. Magoo.
    2 points
  31. 2 points
  32. Well written post. I agree for the most part and find the changes to be way out of line with the brand itself, in particular with the logo art. Here is another post where I linked to the studio which did the original TCM brand art. You can see they have a definite method for their work. The new stuff? Pretty random. Just noise. https://forums.tcm.com/topic/268002-time-for-a-refresh/?do=findComment&comment=2451489
    2 points
  33. The Women (1939) in Reno Next: strip club
    2 points
  34. Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
    2 points
  35. I just watched HOUSE OF DRACULA, a watchable 1945 flick that tries to squeeze in 3 of the more popular movie monsters in one film.....Dracula (played by John Carradine in here), the Wolf Man aka Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and Frankenstein's monster (played by Glenn Strange). (SPOILERS just in case). I think the monster kind of got short shift in here, as the movie mostly alienates between Dracula's half-hearted attempt to want to stop sucking blood (he gives up on that once he lays eyes on the beautiful blonde nurse of Dr. Edlemann, the doc he goes to) and the doc's attempts to cure Talbot from his werewolf ailment. Is it a classic....not really. But I have to admit I did like seeing Talbot finally free from the torment of turning into a wolf without dying. I know, I know ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN actually spoils this a couple years later with Talbot again suffering from turning into bloodthirsty wolf every full moon, but I like to pretend that little story happened before the events of HOUSE OF DRACULA. I did feel sorry for Edlemann, he struck me as a kind, well-meaning man who ended up getting the short end of the stick for his efforts. Talbot was at least appreciative of what he did but old Drac (aka Baron Latos) ended up screwing him when he decided that being a vamp was just too darn fun to give up.
    2 points
  36. I didn't mind Robert Francis so much as I thought the love story between him and May Wynn felt out of place in such an intense film as THE CAINE MUTINY. That was one story element I wouldn't have minded being omitted from the film. Though the suggestion of Anthony Perkins as Willie is certainly an interesting one. Otherwise, THE CAINE MUTINY is still a great film.
    2 points
  37. Not from Hollywood, but a four-sheet poster of Tristana purchased by friend who lived in France for a couple of years in the late 80s. Edit: In the event it isn't obvious, the one pictured is not mine. Mine has been folded for a good number of years.
    2 points
  38. THE ODD COUPLE theme next song sung in New York City
    2 points
  39. San Francisco 1936 In Old Chicago 1938
    2 points
  40. Yea, we have a dog now (well my mother-in-law's dog that came with her from Italy and when she went back, he stayed but that is another story!). Anyhow, this was the first time the dog had experienced lighting and thunder; it dove him nuts causing a lot of barking and growling. Since any actual rain only lasted a minute or two, I took a long walk and it was a beautiful night. (I'm in the Laguna Beach area).
    2 points
  41. Thank you!!! Yes she was lovely. One of the nice things to happen after her passing was that I was able to communicate regularly with her mother. I still am in contact with her to this day, usually on FaceBook. At the time of my first visit on my first spring break in college (spring of 1979) Nancy was engaged to a fellow four years older than she was. At that time and I am sure in different parts of the country even today, many young women get married just out of high school and start having children. I remember telling Nancy during that first visit that she had some very good years ahead of her and that she should try and go to college and see what if anything she could find as far as some sort of career path and not to get married right away. After coming home, a few weeks later I received a letter from her telling me she had broken off her engagement and had enrolled in a junior college near her home. I must have had some influence over her. And what was really funny was that during that visit in a quiet moment with her mother, she told me that she wished that parents could select their daughter's husbands for them. And that if given the chance she would have selected me. The poem from Robert Frost has real meaning to me as far as Nancy was concerned... “I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” Although in my case had I taken the other road, I would have ended up with Nancy. Ah well, maybe in my next lifetime....
    2 points
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