Rickspade
-
Posts
258 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Rickspade
-
-
Arturo,
Actually, the 90s version is a remake, although as with all remakes, there are several differences. Very good cast in the later version, w/ not only DeNiro well-cast in the Widmark role, but some excellent support from Jessica Lange, the always terrific Jack Warden, and Eli Wallach. However, as much as I've always liked DeNiro as an actor, nobody touches Widmark as a film noir actor. He is, and always will be, an icon of the genre (in my humble opinion).
-
If you've given up several times after about twenty minutes, chances are you're not going to like it. However, it's not nearly as bad as the many detractors here would have you believe. It is way too long (what movie isn't these days), with some scenes (like the dinosaurs in pursuit) lasting ad nauseam, but is has some good things, mainly Naomi Watts' performance, which I think is the best thing in the movie. It's heartfelt, and considering she has almost no dialogue after she's been kidnapped, quite moving in her reactions, expressions, and ultimately her understanding, such as it is, of Kong's behavior. Of course, this is a story that benefited from being made back in the days when movies were in the formative years, when the special effects truly did amaze movie goers, as opposed to today when eveyone is so jaded and expects to be dazzled. Jackson went for the overkill, and missed whatever subtlety he could have brought to the story. And, with the exception of Ms. Watts (Personal opinion: the best actress working today, check out Mulholland Drive and 21 Grams), everyone else is miscast.
-
From Casablanca. . .
Captain Renault: "I've often wondered why you came to Casablanca."
Rick: "I came for my health. I came for the waters."
Captain Renault: Waters? What waters? We're in the middle of a desert.
Rick: "I was misinformed."
-
Just want to add my "voice" to the others here who have thanked you for this excellent tribute to a terrific actor. One of things I love best about these message boards is that they're a great place to discover that actors, actresses, directors, writers, and other film talents who you've always enjoyed but believed to have been forgotten or unacknowledged, have legions of fans just waiting for the right opportunity to express their admiration. Thanks for giving all of Paul Douglas's fans that chance!
-
Thanks so much for posting this site! As a HUGE Ann Sheridan fan, I'm always looking for material about her, and this Q & A with Mr. Hagen was delightful, particularly since he seems to confirm what I've always thought to be true (from reading about her in other books, such as James Cagney's bio): she was a great gal, who off screen was just as she appeared to be on screen. Anyway, I've been waiting for years for someone to do a full bio on Annie, and hopefully Mr. Hagen's project will see the light of day as a book all of her fans can enjoy. (And if you spend any time on these boards, you'll discover there are many of us.) Thanks again.
-
>
>
> I'm still trying to find out more about Jack
> Nicholson. Is he sick or is his new look for an
> upcoming movie? Today's LATimes wrote about him
> being backstage but didn't say anything about his new
> look.
I was wondering about that, too. I found out today (IDMB) that Jack is currently filming a movie (co-starring Morgan Freeman) where he plays a terminally ill man. The film is called The Bucket List and it is summarized as a an action/adventure/comedy, about two termianlly ill patients who leave a Cancer Ward to do some things they've always wanted to do, directed by Rob Reiner. I've been a huge Nicholson fan since Easy Rider, and I'll see him in ANYTHING. (God, I even subjected myself to that movie he made with Adam Sandler, regrettably.) Anyway, given Rob Reiner's recent track record I'm already concerned; but the idea of Jack and Morgan Freeman together has some appeal. What do you think?
-
> Holly Hunter and David Straithern in The
> Firm.
>
> They were so good in that scene at the end of the
> film that I wish the movie had been about the two of
> them.
Agree; but don't forget Gene Hackman, who is brilliant, and makes you completely forget Tom Cruise everytime the story shifts its focus to him.
-
> Yesterday was 40 years ago Ann Sheridan passed away.
> I remember the news that night while watching
> between Petticoat Junction and her tv show Pistols
> and Petticoats. I didn't realise then that she was
> so beautiful and special and watching even todays in
> those classic films Angels With Dirty Faces, Torrid
> Zone, They Drive By Night, City For Conquest, The
> Man Who Came To Dinner, Kings Row, George Washington
> Slept Here, Edge Of Darkness, Shine On Harvest
> Moon, The Doughgirls, Nora Prentiss, The
> Unfaithful, I Was A Male War Bride, Come Next Spring
> and so many more. She is still so refreshing. If
> she were alive today and the age she was back in
> lets say 1942 she would have fit right in with
> todays stars. Its a shame she is not as remembered
> as some others. She was a true Hollywood orignal
> legend. One who needs a biography book or film.
> Love to see an all photograph book of her. All
> those sexy poses she did back then.
I concur with your thoughts 100 percent! Anne has been my all-time favorite actress for many, many years. . .ever since I began seeing her in all those films you mentioned (and dozens more) when old movies were the staple of late night television (pre-Cable and VCR/DVD days!). It's been very gratifying reading these message boards from time-to-time over the past several months because anytime someone mentions her name her legion of fans, like you and I, have terrific things to say about her talents. She may be gone for forty years, but for true old-time movie fans she will always live. Thanks for remembering her on the day of her passing.
-
> I knew of the film titled Marlowe but never
> knew it starred James Garner. Well...
>
> In the same vein, has anyone around here seen this
> film Hammett that was on TCM in February
> 1998?
>
> 5:00 PM HAMMETT ( 1983 ) During his days as a
> detective, writer Dashiell Hammett tries to find a
> missing Chinese girl in San Francisco. Frederic
> Forrest, Peter Boyle, Marilu Henner. D: Wim Wenders.
> C 97 m.
>
> Now this sounds like a great movie that would
> complement the detective series line-up coming in
> March. Or is it a travesty that should have never
> been commited to film?
>
> Kyle In Hollywood
I saw it in the theaters when it came out in 1983. It was pretty good, nothing great; Forrest was fine in the title role, and the supporting cast was also good. The movie is based on the Joe Gores' story of the same title, and the chief problem with it, is that Gores, with all due respect, is no Dashiell Hammett!
-
> Anyone remember the Boston Black series of movies
> from the 30's or 40's star Chester Morris? I would
> like to see it re-done with an actor of today. Also
> the Marlowe series of movies with Humphrey Bograt.
> Charlie Chan, Mr Moto. Great Detective, Mysteries.
> Anyone out there like these type of Classic Film
> Series.
Sure do. The Chester Morris series was Boston ****, and on January 23rd TCM will be showing four of them, beginning with Meet Boston ****; check your local schedule for times in your area. As a kid, I liked these films a lot; I'm anxious to see if they hold up as entertaining mysteries. As for the others, there was only one Bogart Marlowe movie, The Big Sleep, and of course, it's a classic. Other actors played Marlowe during the 1940s, including Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, and Dick Powell; in the 60s, James Garner played the detective, and during the 70s, Elliot Gould (a Robert Altman misfire of The Long Goodbye) and Robert Mitchum, in remakes of The Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely (titled Murder, My Sweet w/ Dick Powell).
-
> Ahhh yes I remember it well. It began with the tune
> of "Tara's Theme" from "Gone With the Wind" and ran
> the same movie twice a day for a week.
> When they showed "Caged" with Eleanor Parker I
> believe I saw every showing that week. Couldn't get
> enough of Hope Emerson who played Evelyn Harper, the
> evil matron.
>
Like many others who have written here, I too was a huge Million Dollar Movie fan; as a kid during the late 1950's and early 1960's, I'd sit night after night and watch the same movie over and over again. I didn't realize until I read this thread that it was a syndicated show (which makes sense, but growing up and living in New York makes you believe that you're always privy to things the rest of the country doesn't get to experience; later in life when you live other places you realize what a foolish attitude that is). Anyway, I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but it's pretty funny, so I'll share it. As most older classic movie fans know, Gone with the Wind was never televised on network TV until I believe sometime during the late 1970's or 1980's. So, while I obviously knew about it, I had never seen it. I guess it must have been re-released in theaters perhaps for its 30th anniversary (I was 19 at the time), so I decided to see it for the first time. As I sat in a local theater in Brooklyn by myself one afternoon, when the opening music came up, I was startled, and said rather audibly, Holy Cow, the theme from Million Dollar Movie!, provoking some widespread laughter from the few other people in attendance, all of whom I guess had long ago made the connection I never had. I still laugh when I think about that more than 35 years ago. Thanks to all who have reminisced here bringing back great memories for this ex-Brooklynite.
-
> I also grew up listening to The Make Believe
> Ballroom, on the NYC radio station WNEW. I believe
> the disc jockey, in the NYC area, for that show was
> Martin Block.
> http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/martinblock.html
>
> I can still hear the opening song announcing the
> show...played by Glen Miller
>
> It?s Make-Believe Ballroom Time
> Put all your cares away
> All the bands are here to bring a cheer your way
> It?s Make-Believe Ballroom Time
> And free to everyone
> It?s no time to fret
> Your dial is set for fun
I should have credited Block, who was the original host of the show on WNEW-AM. Williams took over the show on that station (I'm not sure when), but by the time I was growing up (mid-1950's), he was definitely the host.
-
Hi there, fellow Brooklynite. I have the same memory of this that you do; I grew up listening to William B. and his "Make Believe Ballroom" (I was a very young radio fan!), and as any New Yorker from that era can attest to, Williams gets credit for giving Frank that nickname. Perhaps it was suggested to him, behind-the-scenes, so to speak, by Frank's pals at Capitol Records, but the fact remains Williams was the first public on-air personality to attach that sobriquet to Frank, and boy did it ever stick!
-
> i have just two people that come to mind when i think
> of annoying voices... cary grant and gracie
> allen.
Cary Grant??? Yikes! I can't find even one tiny thing in Cary Grant that was even remotely annoying. He might have been the most perfect male movie star ever. But, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion; that's what makes these threads so much fun.
-
>> New Utrecht High School. You know it - "Welcome
> back, welcome back, welcome back."
Thanks for posting a photo of my alma mater, New Utrecht H.S. I attended during the same years that the real life model for Mr. Kotter, a teacher named Mark Levy, was also a student there (late 1960s). In 1976, TV Guide did a feature story on Levy, who went back to teach at New Utrecht, and some of his students, and it's clear that they were the role models for Gabe Kotter and the sweathogs. FYI, other famous Brooklynites, and New Utrecht alumni, from the arts/entertainment world are: Abe Burrows, Buddy Hackett, Gene Barry, and Paul Sorvino.
-
> FMC is not a premium channel on DirecTV. It's part of
> two of their three programming packages. Total
> Choice Plus and Total Choice Premium. It isn't in the
> Total Choice package which is the cheapest one. If
> you switched over in April, they most likely gave you
> the extra channels on the "Plus" package as a sample
> for the first six months. I believe you can upgrade
> for about $5.00 a month and get 30 additional
> channels including FMC.
>
> As for FMC, after you have it a year or so, you'll
> find most of the classic titles are repeated over and
> over. It's a shame that with the hundreds of early
> Fox films they have in their vault they don't show
> more of them. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy FMC, but it
> sure doen't come close to TCM.
I'm not certain where you live, but like JackBurley I reside in the Bay Area in Northern California, and until just a few days ago the Fox Movie Channel most certainly was a part of our Total Choice package (the "cheapest") and we've had Direct TV since 2005, so it wasn't a sample "add on" for the first six months as you suggested. The channel was there everyday, and then a few days ago I put it on, and there was no picture, to be replaced by that blurb at the bottom of the screen, "to subscribe, call ext. 721" or whatever. I called customer service today and was told (as I suspected) that Fox's fees increased so Direct TV had to bump it up to a higher level of subscription. Frankly, as others on this thread have so aptly stated, that channel was a frustrating experience anyway, constantly showing the same old movies over and over again (to say nothing of the same recent movies again and again; in the last five months they must have shown Die Hard about 25 times; meanwhile, as someone else has pointed out, they let their classics from the 40s and 50s (like Fallen Angel) rot in their vaults where no one can see them, unless of course you want to buy the DVDs.) My main concern, as Fred C. has pointed out, is that Direct TV doesn't decide to do to TCM what it just did to FMC. Of course, customer service played dumb about any such plans, but I'm very cynical about this. My wife and I got Direct TV just so we could receive TCM as part of the basic package because our local cable provider made you pay premium prices for it. Anyway, I won't miss Fox because that channel is grade D ground beef compared to TCM's sirloin steak!
-
Add my vote to the growing consensus on Ms. Swanson. . .and while I'm at it, I'd like to suggest that Mr. Wilder should have won two or three more Best Director Oscars (in addition to those he won for The Lost Weekend and The Apartment) for any number of his other brilliant films.
-
> I believe the day of Stanwyck airing tomorrow calls
> for a favorite Barbara Stanwyck movie thread.
> I love her in Ball of Fire, The Mad Miss. Manton, The
> Lady Eve, Meet John Doe... okay, as far as I'm
> concerned all she touches is gold. :-)
She was terrific in nearly everything she ever did, BUT never more brilliant, more sexy, or more dangerous than in Double Indemnity. A Hall of Fame performance, film noir or any genre!
-
> This is the 1935 version with Raft and Edward Arnold.
> It is not available on any home format and it is owed
> by Paramount so a future release is unlikely. Most
> people remember the 1942 Alan Ladd/ Veronica Lake
> version which can be purchased @ Amazon.com.(VHS
> Only) The story is written by Dashiell Hammett.
> vallo
I will echo the other posters here; I've been looking for this movie for years to no avail. You would think with the constant renewal of interest in all adaptations of Hammett's material, this would have shown up by now, either on TCM or in DVD. Especially since this version is supposed to be quite good, and Hammett always said he thought The Glass Key was his best book. (I'm a huge DH fan, but I must respectfully disagree with the author; nothing surpasses The Maltese Falcon. So, vallo, my question for you is, why do you say a future release is unlikely because Paramount owns (I assume you meant to type own) it? Don't they release DVDs all the time?
-
> Didn't Morgan Freeman win Best Supporting a few
> years ago for "Million Dollar Baby"?
>
> No, he won it last year.
That's correct. Earlier I posted a note that said he won it two years ago. What I meant was that he won it for a performance he gave two years ago, in Million Dollar Baby (2004).
-
> Does anybody know any facial characteristics that
> differentiate between father and son? I can never
> tell them apart and have to hope the year of the
> movie is listed to try to figure it from there. Dad
> was born in 1898 (I think), but son was born in 1918,
> so they were both acting at the same time, and a
> difference of 20 years isn't that noticeable in two
> guys with such similar features (the premature white
> hair, chubby cheeks, etc). Watching Destination
> Tokyo and realized I didn't know which one it was.
>
> P. S. I wish they had played 'Gentleman's Agreement
> today, or is that going to be on Greg Peck's day?
Actually, Alan Hale, Sr. was born in 1892, so he was 26 when his son was born. Sr. was literally in dozens and dozens of Warner Brothers movies from the mid- 1930s through the mid-1940s (usually playing the main character's good-natured best friend) and since junior would only have been 20-30 during those years it should be easy to tell them apart. I don't believe the son had much of a movie career; he's chiefly known for being in Gilligan's Island, as the previous poster has mentioned. As far as Destination Tokyo is concerned, that's definitely Sr. Two of his more notable roles were as Little John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and as Ida Lupino's husband in They Drive By Night(1940). However, he turns up everywhere in those great Warners movies from the 1930s and 1940s. Junior doesn't.
-
> If you consider the following list of actors who
> never won, you will see that he was in very good
> company:
>
> 1) Richard Burton (7 nominations)
> 2) Peter O'Toole (7)
> 3) Montgomery Clift (4)
> 4) Robert Redford (1)
> 5) Kirk Douglas (3)
> 6) Richard Harris (2)
> 7) Morgan Freeman (3)
> 8) James Mason (3)
> 9) Cary Grant (2)
> 10) Steve McQueen (1)
> 11) Albert Finney (5)
> 12) Sean Penn (3)
> 13) Tom Cruise (3)
> 14) Harrison Ford (1)
> 15) Donald Sutherland (0)
>
You're working from an outdated list. Morgan Freeman won Best Suppporting Actor two years ago for Million Dollar Baby. Sean Penn won Best Actor for Mystic River in 2003. Otherwise, point well-taken.
-
> > No, I have never seen Lost in Yonkers, and I don't
> > know WHO Mercedes Reuhl is? Is she new? She
> can't
> > be old, or I would know her.
>
> Mercedes is an actress who appears mainly on the
> stage, and sometimes on TV. She was in an episode of
> "Law and Order" where she kill her cheating husband.
> In real life she is over 50 and looks great. She was
> wonderful in "Lost in Yonkers", which I believe is by
> Neil Simon. in real like she was raised a Catholic,
> but in reel life she often plays ladies that are
> Jewish. In both L & O, and Yonkers this is the case.
She's a little more well-known than that; she won an Academy Award in 1992 for Best Supporting Actress in The Fisher King (w/ Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges). She's been in many movies, and the earliest I can remember seeing her was as the frantic mother of Tom Hanks (of course he's only supposed to be 12 years old) in the fine comedy Big (1988).
-
How about Rebecca, Olivier's first wife, in the Hitchcock movie of the same name? Not seen nor heard, but obviously casts a huge presence over the entire story.
Movies that Defied the Code
in General Discussions
Posted
Fred,
The Constitution does not "allow" individual states to decide issues under the 9th and 10th amendments. First of all, constitutional scholars have been arguing for more than 200 years as to what the heck the 10th amendment stipulates, since its wording is ambiguous and so wide-ranging. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled for decades that state laws that violate freedom of religion or freedom of speech or freedom of assembly are unconstituonal under the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Any law--state or federal--that the Court says violates the First Amendment (or for that matter any other clause or amendment of the U.S. Constitution) is unconsitutional and consequently thrown out. (I'm not a Constitutional expert, but I have edited U.S. government textbooks for publishing companies.)