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But only her left side.

The OP wasn't impressed enough to spell her name correctly? I've loved Anna Magnani from the moment I laid eyes on her. Her presence elevates any movie she's in. I would not be surprised if she employed all sorts of acting tricks on a set- for some, it may be key for immersing in the role. As for "bathing" remember, European aesthetics are different from American aesthetics. I am forever amazed at the bombardment of stinky chemical "fragrances" Americans use in every aspect of daily life- from personal products to dryer sheets. I've always struggled with pronouncing her name correctly. At first I said the clunky, "Mag-NON-ee" until I heard an Italian director say "Mag-na-NEE" which sounds much better. Can't imagine her as a showgirl: Her gorgeous granddaughter Olivia bears a striking resemblance:

I absolutely love both Stanwyck and Davis - two of the greatest actresses of classic movies. I just saw "All About Eve" again on TCM. I loved Davis as the mature professional who in fact wins over her nasty predator Eve. I love Bette showing that strength of personality can win over superficial beauty. I can't imagine this film without her. I also love Davis in one of her earlier roles "Of Human Bondage" (1934) based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham about a callous, manipulative waitress. Bette was not afraid of parts where she didn't look glamorous or she wasn't a good girl. Stanwyck is amazing in more comedic roles such as Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve or Christmas in Connecticut but she also played wonderfully in dramatic roles such as "Stella Davis" or "Double Indemnity". Stanwyck had a really strong screen presence and realistic quality to her performances. I don't judge either of these actresses as being less great because they accepted some roles where they didn't appear glamorous later in life. I look at the breadth of their accomplishments and careers.

She is also terrific in Bellissima (1951) and Mama Roma (1962). But for a great comic performance one should check out The Passionate Thief (1960).

Yes, that's right. In the book, Pinkie Brown's internal dialogue is awash in his conflicted Catholicism. Graham Greene converted to Roman Catholicism for the benefit of his marriage, and he is probably the most conflicted and cynical Catholic author in print.

It's those Cockney accents ! I watch a lot of British films, and even I have trouble understanding what they're saying half the time, especially those thick East London dialects. ( well, not London, Brighton I guess, but close.) There's a hilarious SNL sketch from a few years ago, featuring the brilliant Bill Hader. It really nails that incomprehensible working class accent:

I prefer both. Love Stanwyck in her comedies, my favorite being her performance as Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve. Also laughed at her in Remember the Night, Ball of Fire and Christmas in Connecticut. Somewhere in the past, I read that Bette Davis turned down Connecticut opening the door for another great Stanwyck performance. Also Stanwyck was born for film noir as witnessed in Double Indemnity, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Sorry Wrong Number, The File on Thelma Jordan. Plus romantic dramas like My Reputation. Favorite Bette Davis performance is her Margo Channing in All About Eve. Also her earlier dramas--Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Now Voyager, Mr. Skeffington.

Stage Door (1937) -- Eve Arden wears cat as fashion statement The Third Man (1949) -- a kitten gives Harry Lime away Alice in Wonderland (1951) -- Cheshire Cat The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) -- hero is attacked by "giant" cat The Fly (1958) -- cat goes through transporter, never to be seen (only heard) again Walk on the Wild Side (1962) -- iconic black cat in opening and closing credits (Saul Bass) From Russia With Love (1963) -- cat as obligatory villain accessory (--> Austin Powers) The Godfather (1972) -- Marlon Brando uses cat to illustrate Don Corleone's preternaturally relaxed position of authority Shrek 2 (2004) -- Puss in Boots Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Three Colors: Blue (1993) Practical Magic (1998)

two thousand two hundred twentieth category Picture purrfect THE BLACK CAT (1934) HARRY AND TONTO (1974) THE CAT FROM OUTER SPACE (1978)

There's probably more 1950's TV shows that had that Noir-ish vibe but trying to check them out with good copies to watch is going to be the difficulty. I had a few PQ sample episodes of Johnny Midnight (TV series 1960) Edmond O'Brien is Midnight an ex-actor/theater owner, now turned private eye. His turf is Broadway and New York City's theater district. He lives in a penthouse apartment above the Midnight Theater on West 44th St. and has an Asian houseboy/assistant named Aki (Yuki Shimoda). Like Johnny Staccato it only ran one season. A TV series about a ex-con down on his luck detective (sound familiar) who combed the underbelly of Los Angeles starring Darren McGavin. It was created by producer-writer Roy Huggins An NBC TV movie started it off with a lot of verbal and visual STYLE. It was called The Outsider. I have a so so copy of the pilot film now. I never saw this pilot film back in the day. I guess I just remember some of the subsequent series episodes. I remember liking them but honestly don't remember anything past that. P.I. Davis Ross (McGavin) runs around in a black 1960 Ford Galaxy Starliner. The series had a definite dark tone to it. It didn't last too long (26 episodes) in TV land back in the day. There are a few episodes on Youtube. I wish they'd restore the series, one episode shows old Bunker Hill neighborhood in LA in its last days. However Roy Huggins reworked the same material added a crusty father figure and two pals an ex con and a police lieutenant and brought it back as the lighter in tone, long running The Rockford Files. Anyone interested in the Noir episodes of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1958-59) check out first installment here

Both, please! They are such different performers, and they give rather distinct kinds of pleasure. Stanwyck is both more consistent and more "naturalistic," I suppose: always believable and engaging, never overplaying or underplaying anything--she always seems to find exactly the tone the material requires. (Although this may also help explain why she was comparatively underrated until more recently, and never won an Oscar.) She made The Lady Eve, Meet John Doe, and Ball of Fire all in the same year--the first of which is one of my favorite performances in any film comedy. Bette Davis obviously had a more "theatrical" approach, and thus was well-suited to playing characters who were themselves self-dramatizing (Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, The Little Foxes, All About Eve), but as you point out she could also convincingly play more restrained roles without any hint of dullness (e.g. in The Catered Affair). At her best, she has such a galvanizing energy, such a thorough understanding of her character's motivations, and such an alert intelligence, that she is mesmerizing to watch. I suppose if you forced me to "choose," I might acknowledge that Stanwyck's reliability also meant there were fewer enormous highs and lows throughout her career: she rarely exhibited quite the same level of daring, the same sort of extreme commitment to unsympathetic roles (and in lesser films, the sheer will to transcend the limitations of the material itself) that yielded some of Davis's more brilliant achievements. But this is a somewhat unfair comparison to make, since Davis was rather unique in that regard, at least among American film actresses of that era. And all actors have certain limitations--comedy was definitely not Davis's strong suit, for example.

For me it's definitely Davis by a long shot. I enjoy many of Stanwyck's movies and performances, but I don't think she's in the same league. There are many other actresses from the classic era whom I love, like the great Kate, etc. But for me, Stanwyck is strictly second tier. I'd like to have seen Stanwyck in her early Ziegfeld Follies performances, where she probably excelled.

I wrote an answer on quora.com last year that relates both to this question, and to the 1931/32 year you just mentioned: "The individual voting used to be publicly announced, but this was changed in 1935 when Price Waterhouse took over the accounting process. Interestingly, the first and only time there was a tie in the Best Actor category (1931–32), the two winners didn’t actually receive the same number of votes. Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and Wallace Beery (The Champ) were both declared winners, even though March had actually received one more vote than Beery. This is because the rules at the time stipulated that anyone who came within three votes of winning would also receive the same award. The only time there was a tie in the Best Actress category (1968), both actresses received exactly 3,030 votes: Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter) and Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl). (Presumably the actual numbers were released in this case partly in order to verify the integrity of the process, but also because doing so didn’t materially “give anything away.”) Of course, by then the “three votes fewer is close enough” rule had long since been changed, so a genuine tie had become even more difficult to achieve. It’s safe to assume that actors nearly always vote for themselves when they are nominated. Which means that if either March or Beery had somehow failed to do so, they would still both have won an Oscar. But if either Hepburn or Streisand had failed to do so, one of them would not." So far I haven't been able to find any public record of the pre-1935 vote totals, but it must exist online somewhere.

I think the old movies are interesting regardless of their artistic merits simply because they're glimpses of a world that no longer exists. The same reason pottery shards from ancient Greece are so much more interesting than say, the ones from the coffee cup you dropped this morning.

Yes, the novel is almost as replete with Catholic guilt and meditations on God and sin and good and evil and hell, etc. as Joyce's work. Sex, too, as I recall. Most of this is left out of the movie. It's sort of too bad, because all the Catholic philosophizing and angsting is part of what makes the book interesting. But the film is still very good, and a relatively faithful rendition of the novel -- which, given Greene's participation, is to be expected.

I'm not worried. Eddie is a great asset to TCM. Jokes about hangovers never hurt Dean Martin. Besides the station promotes a $%#! wine club.

Correct, of course, NS! According to the BBC in 2016, "... Mexico City has held its first Day of the Dead parade, which tourism officials say was inspired by the opening scenes in last year's James Bond film, Spectre, which was filmed there." Enjoy the rest of your day. 👍 The thread is open...

ARISTOCATS THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA THAT DARN CAT THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS CATS DON’T DANCE One Rifftrax movie I hate/love — A TALKING CAT?!!

Lady and the Tramp Gay Paree (sp?) Bell, Book and Candle (Kim Novak's Cat) Cat People (original and remake)

Anyway, wanna wish all my Canucklehead amigos and amigas here on the TCM Message Board a Happy Thanksgiving!!! Yes, we have our Thanksgiving in Canada in October. 2021's date is tomorrow, Monday Oct. 11, to be exact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada) Eugene Levy from "SCTV" explains it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzXt6nwPvXY

CityTV broadcast Murdoch Mysteries for its first five seasons but they changed the show's time slot so often that it became apparent they were looking for an excuse to cancel the series due to poor ratings (no wonder if viewers don't know where to find it). After Season Five it was cancelled but CBC picked it up, put it in a solid Monday evening time slot and the ratings took off. This year Murdoch Mysteries started Season 15, with 24 episodes announced, the biggest season in the series' history. It's fun watching the adventures of this turn-of-the-century Toronto detective, who often acts as an amateur inventor/scientist with his creations to try to help crack crimes. Among other inventions he created an early lie detector test. There will also be some episodes in which famous historical characters of the time may appear (among them Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel). Bill Shatner as Mark Twain, to be honest, I found a little hard to swallow.

I had a terrible time understanding what was being said in the film. I don't know if the sound recording was bad or what it was. I am going to watch my Blu of the film with the closed caption turned on, because it was hard to decipher the plot without knowing what was being said.

I noticed STEVE COCHRAN was mentioned ^above^. He died the kind of weird, noir-y death you would expect in a movie.

Canadian actor Christopher Plummer's career to stardom took off like a rocket but he had his first TV appearance on the CBC in February 1953 in "Othello." Lorne Greene played Othello, with Patrick Macnee as Cassio and you can see Plummer at the back. This CBC program was also Lorne Greene's TV debut:

I love both Bette Davis & Barbara Stanwyck's career performances and will watch any movie with their names in the credits. Both were adept at comedy and carrying strong dramas. While Bette often stars in more intense dramas than Babs, don't forget her comedic role in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER that includes my very favorite Bette Davis gesture - gleefully drop kicking Ann Sheridan's hat out the door. Both men & women are attracted to both actresses, but men seem to find Stanwyck more desirable & sexier than Bette Davis. I also think that's why Kate Hepburn is not quite as popular, she doesn't come across as soft & sexy for some. I wonder if much of that has to do with some of the roles they played, possibly Stanwyck was more open to play sexpots like in BALL OF FIRE than Bette was. It's a lesson in good career choices. Most classic film newbies are SHOCKED when they see how beautiful Bette Davis was when young because they only think of her later years, especially as Baby Jane Hudson. Wow: But Stanwyck pretty much stayed away from those kind of schlock movies, in the 60's she could be seen in roles like THE BIG VALLEY. Look at how natural Stanwyck looks in her early years compared to coiffed Davis above. I'm convinced "sex appeal" is what keeps Katherine Hepburn's general popularity down, while has elevated Audrey Hepburn to cult status. Audrey (and Marilyn for that matter) always give great performances but it is her beauty, sex appeal that made her a star.

Also on Tubi. Mr. Lucky is OK, but not as good as Peter Gunn. I think the premise behind the TV series was to play off the Mr. Lucky (1943) movie with Cary Grant, which also featured a gambling ship. Other than the title, Mr. Lucky name and gambling ship, the TV series pretty much abandoned the story line of the movie. The movie is a romantic drama rather than a noir.

Sounds like a dictionary of internet slang & emojis. "Curate definitions?" Oh brother.

I was so, so grateful that the camera never did random movement behind Ben or Nancy. Maybe because they were in different places. But I was over the moon to see that. Even the squiggles behind them didn't move. If we see more of that, I will be very glad.

Jack Lemmon Next: Who worked with Ursula Andress, Tippi Hedren, and Charlotte Rampling?

I love both ladies, but I'd give the edge to Bette Davis as I love the films she made slightly more. But don't get me wrong, I do love Barbara Stanwyck. My top 5: (based on personal preference, not any indication of my perception of one actress' ability over another) 1. Lucille Ball 2. Bette Davis 3. Katharine Hepburn 4. Barbara Stanwyck 5. Jean Arthur

I kind of assumed viewing the thread topic that this thread would be overwhelmingly pro-Stanwyck, as I feel that I've seen a fairly strong and consistent anti-Davis sentiment around here. I love both actresses. They're among my favorites of all time. I honestly don't know if I could pick one over the other. Davis was completely fearless in the roles she chose. If her character was unsympathetic or unattractive, so be it, as long as it afforded her a great acting opportunity. Stanwyck excelled at the broad roles - very often the cold but hilarious cynic who would melt and show pathos when the opportunity for love presented itself. But also if she needed to play outright unsympathetic, she was great at that, too. I suppose you could say late-career Davis devolved into self-parody, although there was a certain stylistic genius to those career decisions as well. Stanwyck mostly went the TV route late -career, which is probably outside the purview of these message boards, althought I have to say one of the first things I ever saw her in as a young man was the first episode of the TV mini-series The Thorn Birds, in which she blew me away and made me curious about what else she had done. This is not really a thread about her, but I dig Claudette Colbert too.

Michelle Pfeiffer Next: Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty

Richard Dreyfuss Next: Who worked with Louise Fletcher, Shirley MacLaine and Helen Hunt?

Well, the current rules are that all actors + actresses may vote in any and all acting categories. Not sure whether that has always been the case. The nominating process, at least, was much less democratic in the early years, and there were many fewer voters involved. The first year, for example, "Each Academy member would cast one nominating vote in his branch. Period. Then a Board of Judges from each branch would count the votes and determine the nominations, turning them over to a Central Board of Judges. This Central Board was comprised of one representative from each branch and these five people would pick the Academy Award winners." [from Inside Oscar by Mason Wiley and Damien Bona] I believe the term "actors branch" was always meant to include both actors and actresses, so the phrase "one nominating vote in his branch. Period." in the above quote is unfortunately somewhat ambiguous.

You make excellent points, TOTO. I'm more in your camp, suspended in awed admiration of both Davis and Stanwyck. To me, they pretty much represent the pinnacle. Oh, I do love a few select others-- Ida Lupino for one. And the aforementioned Claudette. By the way, I don't object to Bette being unglamorous in some later roles. But I felt in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" for example, that, somehow, it went too far. Yet, in "Human Bondage", in which she fearlessly let us into the unbeautiful aspects of that character, it was right, and brilliant. It was a "controlled" energy, I guess, as opposed to what I felt in her later. I know many don't agree with me!

I read somewhere that Claudette told her girlfriend she wanted to die at home and that she wanted her face to be touched up with her favorite makeup so she looked good in the morgue. THAT is how a star goes out. Seriously, I think playing Cleopatra changed her. She had a certain image to uphold and she was never going to be run of the mill. Just run of the DeMille.

Brighton Rock is great agree

Another candidate for consideration Mr. Lucky (TV series 1959). I remember watching a few as a kid and not liking it too much. Now I watch with noir shaded glasses and it's pretty good. The scenario - Mr Lucky wins a ship, The Fortuna, gambling. He turns it into an off the three mile limit gambling ship like the Lido in Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely. The Fortuna has two Neon Dice with the dots blinking over the ship. So Lucky played by John Vivyan and his assistant buddy Andamo played by Ross Martin, have various shady adventures, a few Classic Noir character actors show up Ted de Corsia in the last episode I watched. Lots of entertaining Jazz and Beatnik bongo Music. It's entertaining. On IMDb TV

Harold Russell (he received two Oscars for the same role!) Next: actress who did some of her own stunts

Hell on Frisco Bay

Goodbye Again (1961)

He did seem rather lost at times. Maybe it was a bad idea to take that step down from atheism to Catholicism. 😇

There is no such thing as "the Academy" as if this is one entity - instead it is groups of various individuals; E.g. different people vote in each Oscar category.

Every one of those outfits was a winner and Nancy wore them very well.

One of my favorite Brit noirs, great film, Richard Attenbouough is superb in this very menacing role. I hope you enjoy the film.

I've only seen snippets of her, here and there, but immediately liked her persona and presence. That "force of nature" thing might have been difficult for Hollywood to harness properly. What a stunning, mobile face for a camera.

I spent my childhood in the 60's so I'm particularly all too eager to relive a little of it from time to time. (I may not be the only one around here). But I really don't think that some 64-year-old guy up in New England is the solid gold demographic slot that any programmer would zoom in on. More often than not it seems the guests on the TCM intro's are out plugging a book or something, and their agents have simply found a willing showcase for them with Ben or Dave or Alicia, etc. Not sure what the Nancy Sinatra connection to this was, though. In the past she had some new stuff about Daddy that she was promoting. Maybe they're planning a big saturation campaign to bring back Royal Crown Cola. I'd buy that! But it all seems so scattershot, TCM's vaunted new approach to "C"lassic movies. As a brand enhancer or builder I cannot figure out what they are trying to do with this. So far it has all been "V-Day is coming" and I'm getting a little impatient to see what Jack Kruschen has in mind for VIP.

In my view, the best actress of 1948: