Tikisoo

I no pretend, me know. my first 15 years as a space cadet in front of the idiot box makes it so Me-TVs big problem is they doan have me as their chief programmer. That's because they hire educated professionals who know grammar and how to spell.

I am pretty sure it was him. I remember when the movie was released, it caused a big hub bub. After all, if someone else dubbed for him it would have been better wouldn't it? I definitely like this movie better now than when initially released. It's great seeing Keith Moon alive & well on the screen, as well as the pop stars of the 70's in their prime. The shot of Tina's legs twitching in her red sequin dress is burned in my mind!

I'm with you MissW on that point....all my friends lurve that TV series about Fairy Tale charactors while I find it a bore. Now I don't necessarily mind updated stories, like all the Christmas Carol versions - for example- a female Scrooge or a modern day Scrooge- just as long as the story is faithful to the original. If done well, it can be a stepping stone for the uninitiated to seek out the original version. But I do find it rather tedious and lazy when so called play writers can't come up with anything new. The entire WICKED thing leaves me cold. Maybe if I saw it, I'd like it, but it just smacks of coattail riding.

Oh yeah.....why couldn't A STAR IS BORN be with stellar Judy Garland and better Fredric March? Janet Gaynor is insipid in the original, while Fredric brings a sensitive sexiness to Norman Maine. James Mason's Maine seems to have a mask on-zero facial expression. I did like however, Miriam Hopkins in both versions of THESE THREE/THE CHILDRENS HOUR- in different roles!

Thanks for mentioning it Swithin....I'm always interested in seeing a Scorcese film but have to avoid some because of the violence.

Yay! Two good reviews from people whose opinion I trust!

I borrowed my Mom's copy of NOW PLAYING for January and don't see many premieres for the month.

speedracer said: I like the 1940s clothing the best, they seem like the type that would fit my particular body type well. And that's the key-dressing in clothing that fits your body type. People have devolved into thinking anything goes! I am petite- clothing of the 60's looks best on me-anything Jackie wore looks great- simple suits & dresses with cropped jackets. My boss commented the first day I showed up for work, "Who you supposed to be, Mary Poppins?" because I guess it's sort of prim looking. But when you're 5'2" big flowing garments with large prints just don't look good. I find it interesting that during the 1950s, two actresses (Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe) with very different body shapes were hugely popular It's interesting in that Marilyn was the epitome of the 50's-blonde & buxom while Audrey's look ushered in the 60's. In fact, it WAS Givenchy who decided to make this look popular by taking Audrey's pitifully unfeminine physique (of the day) and creating a "look" that would SET the trend. That "look" was non-sexual, pre-pubescent little girl physique in women's clothing. The 60's was all about youth culture, so it took off like fire. Later designers went with Empire waists to emulate the "baby doll" look in dresses and low waisted bell bottom jeans to elongate the waist, looking like kids. (this waist elongating & leg shortening is going on today) While I wouldn't want to have to wear a girdle, stockings, or heels everyday (or ever), and wouldn't really want to have to look for a matching hat, gloves and bag all the time, I do think it's a shame how sloppy people have gotten when it comes to attire. When did it become okay to wear pajamas and slippers to the store? NEVER. And it isn't hard to match your hat, gloves & bag when you own a set of black, blue & brown. You just rotate them with whatever works. I have a red set, a pink set and a black set to rotate. And the black set can be sprinkled with a color like royal if need be. I like looking smart. It's worth it to me even though I'm over the hill. As far as PJs in public, it boils down to the lack of PRIDE or SHAME in our society. No one cares if they look like a drunken college student (where PJs in class started) or an ex-con (butt exposed). Pregnant gals walk around in tight t-shirts with their navel popping out, no one washes or styles their hair (men-shaved heads/women's hair pulled back tightly) but instead cover themselves with brightly colored tattoos like a comic book carnival.

Darn! My Mom told me about this but I had missed it! I used to loathe Bing but am actually starting to warm up to his movie roles and see what was so endearing about him to audiences. I had read Bob Hope's autobiography over the summer and realize they were both professionals just doing a job. But even with a job, it's great to mesh with your coworkers, isn't it? I think they respected each other's talents and just worked well together. I also just finished reading Don Knotts autobiography and it was the exact same way; father concentrates on nurturing his show business career and has very little involvement with his family. To put this into perspective, fathers weren't the "nurturers" you see today. Many American fathers were "distant" or "unemotional" in the first half of this century. Remember, "real" men were stoic breadwinners that never changed diapers. They felt responsible for supporting their family at all costs, and sometimes the "cost" was their time. Show business is probably the toughest career for anybody, since you are always scrounging for that next gig. And if you have a wife & kids who want sprawling mansions & ponies, the pressure must be huge. Possibly these show business Dads looked back and felt like they missed out on nurturing their kids. It may not have been their choice to be away working. Then again, they may have preferred working over being home. We don't really know.

Sexy high heels have been known as "F*** Me Pumps, or whatever, for a long time. Starlets Shelley Winters and Marilyn Monroe apparently shared an apartment, many men and FMPs, to hear Winters tell it. Funny-I'm just reading Winters' autobiography and read that reference last night....I thought "wow they called them that back then too!" What's even more interesting than looking at women's clothing style changes, speedracer, is realizing different "body types" come in & out of fashion, supporting the clothing cuts. In the 20's-30's it was a lithe flat chested "childlike" look that spawned the flapper "sheath" dress look. After WW2 bewbs came into style so women's clothing became cinched at the waist to show off the bust. In the 50's, the womanly hourglass figure was the style, so dresses were small at the waist and full at the hem to create the illusion of an hourglass figure even on the waifest gal. The 60's bell bottoms again, created curves while the "baby doll", sheath and dropped waist dresses harkened back to childlike long waisted forms on women. The 80's & 90's were all about big shoulders, small bottoms & skinny legs. And of course today it's all about cleavage. It's almost impossible to find t-shirts for women that aren't very deeply low cut. Girls look as if they have a butt in front. I wonder if it's to balance the cracks the boys are showing in the back? (say no to crack!) I am always amazed at how there are trends in body type as well as hair to accentuate it. I loved in HAIRSPRAY when Tracey Turnblatt says to Pia Zadora, "Your hair is so FLAT!"

But there is an alternative to watching it with commercial interruption Sure there is....seeing it at a theater! There were no fewer than 3 theaters in my area screening it this past year. We had a car full of people go with us 45 minutes to see it-what fun! (and sitting in the balcony...we could hear the reaction of the audience in the auditorium-lots of laughter & surprise! Sounded as if for many, it was the first time seeing it!)

OK, I'll step in with my speculative opinion..... I have some black members of my family and they are in the 30 something age range. Across the board they are not offended by stereotypical portrayals of black culture in old films, like the slaves in GWTW or the cartoon charactors in SOTS. What IS offensive (to me) is super silly portrayals of blacks in say WB cartoons with googly eyes or watermelons. But while offensive, we all just shrug it off as small minded. Another example is in our small film group. The president used to sweat over movies with these kind of scenes in our old movies, worrying about offending anyone in the audience. After a film that included whites in blackface doing a minstrel show, he apologised to one of our regulars, a black guy of about 50. His response, "Why? Who cares? It's the past. They didn't know any better" I kind of like the fact that it seems white people are more offended by these portrayals than the black people I know. It shows we're ashamed of our forebears mistakes because we've evolved. Remember, many of these "stereotypical" portrayals were just imitating this "foreign" culture, not unlike Chico Marx double talk. He was just portraying an Italian immigrant's mangling of English as a second language. It wasn't done to be mean, but to recognise the humor in the situation. Haven't we ALL mispronounced words....even with English as our primary language?

Sorry Jlewis....it WAS HoldenIsHere whom I quoted. And HoldenIsHere....we are both saying the exact same thing just from different angles. The cartoon charactors are stereotypical "black" charactors based solely on their voices. There is nothing derogatory about their actions, just obviously upsetting for some by their "dialect". My point is.... if it's so derogatory, then why is it still spoken? I feel this eubonics if you will, is accepted and embraced by the very people who Disney is afraid of offending. I could be way off base here, it's just the way it looks to me. There is NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. I spoke my own localized white r e d neck kid Mississippi dialect Yeas, I don't think there's anything wrong with that either. There's all kinds of people and when I see my own kind stereotyped, I can enjoy it knowing that's how many people view ME. (I'm an artist & of Hungarian gypsy descent.....I can laugh at the goofy artsy Mom in Beetlejuice and embrace depictions of thieving gypsies in carnivals)

Jlewis said: No, the animal characters in the animated SONG OF THE SOUTH clip did not just have bad Southern accents. They were speaking in what was referred to as the "Negro dialect" as evidenced by their use of the expression "gwine" for going to. Apparently you do not live in "the hood" as I do. "Negro dialect" or eubonics is alive and well as far north as NY, where I live. Most inner city teens & young adults of every race & color speak this way, even today. I am amazed at the acceptance of "ain't", "where yo at?", the double negative and other odd grammatical regionalisms heard on a daily basis from people who have never even been to the south US. I do not understand how this can be offensive when it is wholly accepted and still in use by a large population.......? Upstate NY is also home to the very large Onondaga Nation, encompassing seven Native American tribes. I am a hundred times more offended when I hear "savages" or "squaw" in old movies than the Indians I know. They say, "Eh, those are labels the white man gave us." and it just doesn't bother them. I've learned from their example to just accept the mistakes of the past and let it go.

On another thread I mentioned the MY FAIR LADY that's OnDemand with Time Warner Cable is awful-very pixellated & blurry while what's broadcast on the regular TCM channel is definitelty HD.

If your oats were hard Sepia, you just didn't cook them long enough. Steel cut oats with a plop cold plain yogurt & maple syrup is a delicious winter warmer....tastes like maple nut ice cream. If you are on a restricted diet, those sorts of things are unbelievably delicious compared to some of the tasteless "healthy" stuff that's like eating cardboard. The internet is a great source for items you KNOW you like but can't get. What stinks is when they stop making the stuff you like, like my beloved bourbon mash ground flour. Made the best bread!

Mr 666: I thought it was just the depiction of 'Uncle Remus' as a happy, contented slave, which is bad enough, but is also shown in other old films. I saw nothing in the film that said Uncle Remus was a "contented slave". He was just an elder storyteller. No mention was made of time period or social standing. He was just there to tell the kids a story. But seeing & hearing those 3 cartoon characters really had me cringing AND saying aloud, "Oh, NOW I get it!" The charactors just had bad Southern accents. Sooooo if a white, Asian, Indian or animal charactor has a bad Southern accent, that's somehow demeaning to black culture? What about Eddie "Rochester" Anderson? He mangles his English in the name of comedy, not unlike Chico Marx. Everyone on the Andy Griffith show spoke slang English & grammar (example: said "ain't*) was THAT somehow insulting to Southerners and/or black culture? I just don't understand how speaking in a Southern slang insults black culture, especially when a cartoon animal.

Well collard greens are a winter staple in my house, I make them with 8 cloves of garlic kind of like Italians do. (I don't eat ham) I also eat lots of steel cut oats over the winter, not unlike Scrooge's "gruel". (and I hate Christmas....uh oh) I think these dishes are mentioned in Dickens' book because then- as now- they are foods for "poor people"....meaning inexpensive, large quantity & filling. Scrooge HAD money, but he was thrifty & cheap- even towards himself- an illustration of his charactor. It makes you wonder in the updating of this tale how many of these intricate details will be just left out, homogenizing the story?

My sentiments exactly Polecat. I recently watched POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE and was amazed at Meryl Streep's voice-man she's got a great set of pipes! I find it encouraging she's in this while Johnny Depp's participation discouraging. The poster makes it look like a Tim Burton cartoon, oy. Fingers crossed it'll be worthwhile....

Sorry to interject onto your "blog"....but I have a question for you.... I chose MY FAIR LADY on demand with Time Warner Cable last week and it was unwatchable! Blurry, completely pixelated. I know TCM has just recently gone HD but are the "On Demand" movies still lower resolution? The TV I was watching is a 60" monster and MFL looked like a video tape.

"Hate the SONG", Tiki?! Hell, I hate the entire MOVIE!!! Thankfully, I've never seen the movie. I had no idea the plot line was basically a Cinderella story. (I was a hardcore punk rocker in the late 70's-80's....complete with purple hair)

I know: Let's tell all the blowhards on the message board that the TCM staff & celebrities regularly read the CFU looking for screenwriters & journalists to assist with the TV station and it's productions. Maybe they'd gather over there for their vanity posts?

Michael Sembello-----Maniac (from FLASHDANCE) Gawd I hate that song.

I was all over the map last week... DON KNOTTS RELUCTANT HERO COLLECTION I'm reading his autobiography and wanted to revisit his work. Loved the nostalgia factor of GHOST & MR CHICKEN, with Knotts playing to perfection his charactor "the nervous man". Loved the Vic Mizzy musical score, plethora of great charactor actors like Reta Shaw, all in a fun story. A kid's movie adults can enjoy too. I watched THE LOVE GOD which was mildly amusing. Adorable Anne Francis co stars and featuring eclectic 60's costuming. Fun! I got tired watching THE SHAKIES GUN IN THE WEST and took it back to the library. Better in small doses. NEW YORK STORIES and SMALL TIME CROOKS Trying to see every Woody Allen I've missed when I was discouraged by his social life. I enjoyed the Scorcese segment a lot. I loved the last segment a lot too-mainly because of Julie Kavner & Mae Questel being in it. Cute story with top notch performances. Fell asleep through 2nd feature. Must have been boring. THE DEAD MAN Mr Teek showed me this last night. Upon hearing the first 2 bars of music I said "sounds like Neil Young" which it was. Jim Jarmush movie, he's an odd director. Seemed like he was trying to be "artsy" which is better than being bland, I guess. Thin story, but interesting charactors especially NOBODY the Indian. Johnny Depp is a good actor, just too girly looking. Kind of like weirdo Tom Cruise-his looks get in the way of my believing him. It was ok with Cary Grant, but not with Depp. THE SUN ALSO RISES Wanted to see this after discussions about Errol here. I found it funny when an actor said "The most beautiful woman I've ever seen!" when Ava Gardner walked into the room. She was far from her most stunning self, sadly. I didn't mind Errol being older at all, his charm still came through for me. Wonderful to see a very young Robert Evans, of Evan-Picone and later successful studio head. (Woo hoo! Tonight my movie buddy gives me a bunch of TCM recordings from Nov-Dec!)

Judy Collins- who the song was written for- is playing the local theater around the corner from me. I saw her in her prime, good performer.