JackBurley

I think you mean The Search, bc...

Here's my 12 months: Irene Dunne Claudette Colbert Judy Garland Sophia Loren Meryl Streep Marlene Dietrich Norma Shearer Joan Crawford Sidney Poitier Cary Grant Marcello Mastroianni Gregory Peck With a week devoted to the each of the following: Eleanor Powell Marie Dressler Nicholas Brothers Giulietta Masina Ann Sothern Joan Greenwood Deanna Durbin Zarah Leander Marjorie Main Miriam Hopkins Sylvia Sidney Jane Powell Valentino Eve Arden Joan Blondell And some days devoted to: Edith Evans Paul Robeson Maria Montez Elisabeth Bergner I'd also like to see an opera week, devoted to movies featuring: Grace Moore, Geraldine Farrar, Lily Pons, Rise Stevens, etc.

The unusual color scheme of Minnelli's Yolanda and the Thief is both odd and arresting. The juxtaposition of golden yellows and browns (see the "Coffee Time" number), were so of that time, yet rarely seen on film. Much more subtle than the garish visual feasts of the 25th Century Fox musicals or Selznick's lurid palette for Duel in the Sun. A favorite movie for color is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The ruby red of Misses Russell's and Monroe's "Little Rock" dresses is so saturated and rich; and in the "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" number, the startling, shocking pink of Marilyn Monroe's dress against the crimson background... well on paper it doesn't sound as if it would work -- but it does. http://www.suetuthill.com/marilyn_gentlemen_prefer_blondes.jpg I also appreciate the palette of the Powell/Pressburger films. The colors of Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes really set the tone and mood that is both telling and unique.

Parent Trap?

And I'll dive in with Mary Poppins.

Ah shoot, I assumed you'd meant the original Jose Ferrer biopic of Toulouse-Lautrec, which featured a great score (plus Zsa Zsa Gabor!).

Aw shucks, that's before my time (I've only had TCM for the past month). Thanks for your reply, romantic. It's nice to know they gave tribute to Berkeley's work, but I'm sorry to hear it was so recent as I imagine it will be some time before they would show those movies again.

Ms. Rand died in 1982. Her book The Fountainhead was made into a movie with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal. She also wrote We the People and Anthem.

When the lunch was over, do you think Lassie asked for a doggie bag?

Some of my favorite soundtracks: Adolph Deutsch - The Apartment (wish this were on cd) Philip Glass - Mishima Philip Glass - The Hours Bernard Herrmann - On Dangerous Ground Erich Wolfgang Korngold - Adventures of Robin Hood Andre Previn - Irma La Douce Alfred Newman - Song of Bernadette Alex North - Streetcar Named Desire Max Steiner - Since You Went Away Nino Rota - Fellini's Amarcord Nino Rota - Le Notti Bianche

When I was a kid I would beg my parents to let me stay up past my bedtime because I wanted to watch some classic movie. I felt desperately deprived because I'd never seen Garbo nor My Man Godfrey. Invariably, when they'd say no to my plea to watch Casablanca or Citizen Kane, I'd reason with "but it's a classic!". Surely, then they'd understand and allow me to see these treasures. But no, they were unmoved. They'd roll their eyes and claim that I declared all movies "classics". But they are, I'd reply with as little guile as possible. In retrospect, I realize that any movie made before I was born was "old" to me. And that alone gave it credence in my young mind. But to my parents, these movies were relatively new. I marvel that I was two when Douglas Sirk's Imitation of Life was released. To me, it was a "classic old movie"; to my parents it was something that they saw at the Senator Theatre only a few years back. Singing in the Rain was released only 5 years before I was born -- yet I watched it as if it came from an entirely different time. I didn't realize that the woman televised on the "Judy Garland Show" was the same person as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. So now I wonder if some child begged me to stay up and see Gosford Park, would I understand his/her perception that this is an old classic. Or would I think, "Gosford Park? I just saw that in the theatre a few years ago. Go to bed!"

Have you seen the neo-screwball comedy What's Up Doc?? It features Love Story star, Ryan O'Neal and Barbra Streisand and was release two years after after the wild success of the tragic love story. Toward the end of WUD, Miss Streisand's character looks deep into Mr. O'Neal's eyes and utters, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." He returns her gaze and says, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

Are you saying that your daughter's name is "Veronika"?

How funny; I never noticed they were sitting in alphabetical order. But wait, how did Lassie end up between Edward Arnold and Mary Astor? Shouldn't the canine be next to Mario Lanza? Or did Lassie have a last name and he's holding out on us? Speak, Lassie, speak!

I think that Jack Elam was the king of slimy characters. Wall-eyed, unshaven and unkempt; I always got the feeling that he relished playing the bad guy. I bet he was a great guy in person. Michael T. Weiss was wonderfully slimy in Freeway as he kicks off this great update of "Little Red Riding Hood".

Could it have been Marlene Dietrich in Golden Earrings? She plays a "gypsy" in this 1947 romance, and wore a black wig in it. I don't remember if there was a dance number or not...

Ah yes, this is the lunch given in honor of the 25th Anniversary of MGM. You can see this on Side A of the disk of supplemental material that comes with the 4-disk set of That's Entertainment. The panning shot was used in That's Entertainment, but this added disk shows more -- including George Murphy announcing many of the stars as they enter.

Hi HP, I think you're mixing up a couple of musicals. As you noted, there is Vincent Minnelli's The Pirate and there is the movie version of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance which featured Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury; but the song "Gesticulate" is from another Minnelli movie: Kismet. In it, Howard Keel sings: "Dear hand, deft hand, clever and facile extremity. A companion to me from my birth. Sweet hand, swift hand, spinner of fable and fantasy. Faithful friend of my art, would they rend us apart, leaving no finger nor fist there, but just a hint of a wrist there. Where then my spirit with my mercurial charm, am I fated to sit with elbow and arm, and no digits to top them off -- if they lop them off!" This song features "patter" sections that could be reminiscent of Gilbert and Sullivan. The music is by the Russian composer Borodin, and the themes such as the Polovtsian Dances and Prince Igor were wrested from their origins and thrown into a Mesopotamian adventure wherein the character Hajj must stand trial for theft.

I was thrilled to see it on TCM a year or two ago. I owned the vinyl soundtrack and then the cd (which I believe is now out-of-print), so it was great to place the visuals with the sound. For instance, I was surprised to discover that one of the songs Jane Powell sings, is delivered to an robotic penguin! Why not go to the "suggest a movie" page and let 'em have it?

Ms. Harlow said "I also like that in most of the musicals Busby Berkeley choreographed, most of the same actors are in all of them, from the stars (Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler...) to the supporting actors (Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, etc.). It's like a big family." There certainly was a period where Mr. Berkeley worked with the ensembles of Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Frank McHugh, etc. But these were relegated to a seven-year period at Warner Bros. in the 1930's. Keep in mind that he moved on to direct many different talented people at different studios up until Jumbo (released in 1962). Carmen Miranda, Judy & Mickey, Betty Hutton, Doris Day, and many more were directed by this difficult genius. I'd like to see a month devoted to him. Since I'm fairly new here, can anyone tell me if TCM has done a tribute to Busby Berkeley?

Oh brother, you're right! I should have kept my keyboard shut. Number Seventeen is precisely what I had in mind. When a dead body is found, the scream is masked by the train whistle. The shipwreck was in Rich and Strange. I didn't mean to throw you off, and apparently I didn't! Good job, path. And now, I believe the next Hitchock Trivia question is up to you...

Nope... Should I give additional clues? (I'm used to playing in the "21 Questions" thread!) In this movie, Hitchcock also featured a shipwreck, which foreshadowed Lifeboat...

That's a jump rope song, but Ella Fitzgerald recorded it. And I believe it was featured in Mother Wore Tights which is a Betty Grable movie...

Now what was the question I was going to pose? Oh yeah, Hitch had a lot of themes that he used repeatedly over the course of his career. Some were narrative, some visual; and some aural. Now I'm thinking of that great, jarring sound editing when we see a woman scream but we actually hear the scream of a train whistle. Remember? It was featured in The Thirty-Nine Steps. But in what earlier movie did he use this same effect?

Okay, no one else leapt in and I thought of another question (in case I'm correct), so here goes: "If you can meet with triumph and disaster, And treat those two imposters just the same..." is from Kipling's poem "If" [which ends]: "...Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!" The quote is seen at the tennis grounds after Guy's match in Strangers on a Train (and hence my allusion to not having a question "to lob back" to the rest of you.). Remember, the movie is all about the "twos" -- pairs. "two imposters" was very evident within the frame, and harkens to Bruno and Guy.