JackBurley
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Posts posted by JackBurley
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"I do like Adrien Brody but not Benny boy. Surely neither of them is playing Eddie Mannix? They don't look anything like him."
Bob Hoskins plays Eddie Mannix in Hollywoodland. The release date will be September 8.
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She got her start dancing the Charleston; she was a flapper. Have you seen Dancing Lady? To see her dance with Fred Astaire is to presume her choreographer was St. Vitus. At least she knew what her feet looked like (she couldn't take her eyes off of them)...
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Thanks for mentioning her musicals - I've yet to see them.
Perhaps you bit off more than you could eschew...
Have I got some movies for you...
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Dancing Lady is a clumsy effort. I think that's why it fascinates me. Joan Crawford's luridly beautiful close-ups belied the fact that she could neither sing nor dance. The haunting melody Everything I have is Yours was intended for her, but she couldn't sing it. So they rewrote the scene to have Art Jarret sing it. Miss Crawford was to hum a two-bar break, so that in publicity that could still say, "sung by Joan Crawford." Dancing Monolith would have been a more appropriate title, as Miss Crawford's ruffled dressed only accentuated her wide, squat frame and awkward moves.
This was a Selznick movie; he and art director Merrill Pye were both influenced by 42nd Street, a [Lloyd Bacon/]Busby Berkeley hit which impressed them but thought it lacking in glamour. So Mr. Pye created Moderne sets that were both simple yet lavish. It's a gorgeous example of black and white. The production numbers were to mimic the Berkeley style, but the compositions are off. The sets are gorgeous, but poorly framed. It's a mess. I can't take my eyes off of it.
And you're right, Mr. BSG: Absolute Beginners is a flawed work. But that long tracking shot that opens the movie was brilliant. I understand it's the longest single-take tracking shot on film. I'd like to watch that clip over and over... Director Julien Temple has a great eye; I'm sorry he didn't continue to make more movies (and sorry that I sat through Earth Girls are Easy)...
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"I could do without musicals altogether on TCM... (I)sn't Irene Dunne simply the best?! - a true comedic genius often overlooked... Doris Day - gotta love Send Me No Flowers, Pillow Talk, etc."
We could compromise and show Roberta, Show Boat and High Wide and Handsome -- Irene Dunne musicals. Not only was she a sparkling comedienne, but she was a beautiful soprano. Interesting that you'd choose two musical stars, but would eschew their musicals...
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"Why do movies matter?"
May I present a passage from Tom Robbins' 1980 tome Still Life with Woodpecker? Though it's a work of fiction, the tale he tells is true. It's a favorite of mine, and one that I lend to many (and now to you). In fact, when I was in art school there were a myriad of conversations regarding questions along this line. A favorite painting professor (and one whose work is in museums all over the world) even questioned the importance of art in today's society. I gave him this passage and he hung it on his office wall:
"There's an underground involved in political resistance and the underground involved in preserving beauty and fun -- which is to say, preserving the human spirit. ... In the 1940's in Nazi-occupied Paris, an artist named Marcel Carn? made a movie. He filmed it on location on the Street of Thieves, the old Parisian theatre street where at one time there was everything from Shakespearean companies to flea circuses, from grand opera to girlie shows. Carn?'s film was a period piece and required hundreds of extras in 19th-century costume. It required horses and carriages and jugglers and acrobats. The movie turned out to be over three hours long. And Carn? made it right under the Nazi's noses. The film is a three-hour affirmation of life and an examination of the strange and sometimes devastating magnetism of love. Romantic? It's romantic enough to make a travel poster sigh and a sonnet blush. But completely uncompromising. It's a celebration of the human spirit in all of its goofy, gentle, and grotesque guises. And he made it in the very midst of Nazi occupation, filmed this beauty inside the belly of the beast. He called it Les Enfants du Paradis -- The Children of Paradise -- and forty years later it's still moving audiences around the world. Now, I don't want want to take anything away from the French resistance. Its brave raids and acts of sabotage undermined the Germans and helped bring about their downfall. But in many ways Marcel Carn?'s movie, his Children of Paradise, was more important than the armed resistance. The resisters might have saved the skin of Paris, Carn? kept alive its soul."
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"On the USC campus there is the Doheny Library. Back in the day, the story went that the sound guy for Them came down to the campus and recorded the sound that Doheny Library makes."
The library building makes a sound? That seems counterproductive. Did the librarians "shush" it?
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"Does anyone agree the sound the ants made was like squealing tires?"
Ah, we have a controversy!
There was a discussion earlier this week about the sound of the ants in Them!:http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.jspa?messageID=7823876?
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"...it is fun to see Ford as a villain."
After reading Frank Capra's Name Above the Title, it's hard for me to think of him as anything other than a villain. Now it's said that Capra's book wasn't trustworthy. Who knows what to believe?
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Great timing for you and Mr. Lorre, Doherty. Do you know about the TCM feature wherein they'll send you a reminder of the movies you want to see? If you look at the schedule, you'll find a "clock" icon in one of the right columns. Click the clock that's indicated for the movie you want to see to sign up for the reminder...
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20,000,000 / 17 10 13 - 3 x 100 / 10 52 40 / 2 / 39 + 1/2
Though I can't get the sum to add up to it, I can't help but wonder if it's Fellini?
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"I haven't seen Eleanor Powell's Born to Dance or Rosalie in a REALLY long time. I also haven't seen Mario Lanza in That Midnight Kiss or Jane Powell in Holiday in Mexico for quite some time. MORE LANZA AND POWELL AND KATHRYN GRAYSON!!! Some Norma Shearer would be most welcome - The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Smilin' Through, Marie Antoinette, Romeo & Juliet, Idiot's Delight, Her Cardboard Lover, Riptide, The Divorcee."
I'm happy to report that a few Eleanor Powell movies will be screened over the next months, starting with Lady Be Good next Thursday. Unfortunately however, neither Born to Dance nor Rosalie are among them. I'm hoping TCM will devote November 21 to Miss Powell, as it's her birthday. We should find out any day now...
That Midnight Kiss will be broadcast on September 5. Holiday in Mexico was on only last week. I'm so sorry you missed it! Marie Antoinette will be broadcast on October 22 and 25, in conjunction with the DVD release that month. Idiot's Delight and Riptide were just played a couple of months ago. That was a great day on TCM!
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This kills me. How did this Rhino cd get past me? I'm on their mailing list and I've never heard of this. If I had, I would have been sure to buy it. Rhino's been resting on its laurels lately; it's been so long since they've released any soundtracks. Nothing since those "Rhino Handmade" limited editions a year or so ago. If you ever hear of anything like this, NZ, please feel free to PM me anytime to alert me. In the meantime, I'll keep an eye out for two copies of "Mario Lanza at MGM".
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"Now that we're on the subject of S.Sarandon,wasn't she originally married to Chris Sarandon in the 70's? I always liked him as an actor and thought that he would do more. Do you know anything about him?"
Chris Sarandon is still a working actor. I saw him in a movie last year called Loggerheads. He's also been doing a lot of television guest spots and voice work. Did you know he was the voice of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas? He's the voice of "Zeb" in the animated feature The Chosen One, being released later this year and was in the Broadway production of The Light in the Piazza that was shown on PBS last June as part of the "Great Performances" series.
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"Watched "Love Letters" starring Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones for the first time last night and it was great. Does anyone know when it will be televised again?"
Unfortunately, it's not scheduled for the next three months. You might want to enter it on the "Suggest a Movie" page:
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"I love Marion Davies but after watching Carole Lombard today I really can't see why people regard her so highly but not Marion Davies as a great funny lady when they both had the same type of approach and personality but Marion did far more comedy, especially physical comedy."
Interesting. My love for Carole Lombard was confirmed today. I saw My Man Godfrey and Nothing Sacred this morning. Then Love Before Breakfast this afternoon. This was a frustrating excercise, as I didn't approve her relationship with the arrogant and selfish character of Preston Foster, and it didn't ring true that she'd end up with him. I caught some of Hands Across the Table and some of To Be or Not to Be.
Marion Davies' beauty was more common. She's very approachable, like the waitress at the local diner who calls you "hon". It's Miss Lombard's refined beauty that is so surprising -- because she's acting so goofy! One expects her to be a refined glamorpuss, but then she comes out with the most outrageous pranks and comments. It'd been years since I'd seen Godfrey and Nothing Sacre, and I was delighted to rediscover them.
I've only seen Marion Davies in Show People and Going Hollywood and was charmed by her. I've been adding her name on the "Suggest a Movie" page and will continue my campaign; I want more of her...
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Poster leroyshield solved the puzzle in the Shorts Forum. The dancing sequence is stock footage from the Ruby Keeler/Paul Draper movie Colleen. The Harry Warren/Al Dubin song "You Gotta Know How to Dance" was featured in the opening credits (sung by Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Jack Oakie, Joan Blondell, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda, Luis Alberni, Marie Wilson and chorus; and tap-danced by Paul Draper and chorus). Later in the film, the song is reprised with Dick Powell singing, and danced by Paul Draper, Ruby Keeler and chorines for the finale.
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Mr. Shield, I bow to you! Thank you so much. Tell me that the female dancer shown is not Miss Keeler. Perhaps she was featured in a portion of the "You Gotta Know How to Dance" number, but the section shown in Six Hits and a Miss does not feature her and was cut out of Colleen? This explains why the opening credits of Six Hits and a Miss features "The Dancing Colleens"!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Hmmm.... somehow the That's Entertainment! angle doesn't seem appropriate. A "cheat", no? I figured Lionel Stander would be the link, but I wasn't aware of Pulp. Is that the only movie that Mssrs. Rooney and Stander made together? Isn't it surprising it would take them 40 to make a picture together?
'tis your turn, MrWrite...
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Alas, Peter Lorre doesn't have a day; but he'll be on tomorrow in You'll Find Out. Other dates to watch for:
August 26/September 8/October 1 - Arsenic and Old Lace
August 28 - The Conspirators
August 29/September 1, 16 - Casablanca
October 6, 31 - Mad Love*
October 14 - My Favorite Brunette
October 31 - The Beast with Five Fingers
__________
* Perhaps Doherty can go to a friend's house to see this on TCM?
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"it's part of that box set with Marie Antoinette right?"
Indeed, yes! I'm counting the days...
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Nino Rota was a composer of opera and ballet, but is best known as the man who scored so many of Federico Fellini's movies. Maestro Arturo Toscanini urged him go to Philadelphia to study under Fritz Reiner at the Curtis Institute, and so Sr. Rota headed to America in the early 1930's. After two years in the U.S., he returned to Italy, and audiences first took note of his film scores when he wrote the music for Renato Castellani's Zaz?. He continued with a prolific career, working for Edward Dmytryk (Obsession), Edgar Ulmer (I Pirati di Capri), in addition to many popular Italian directors. In 1947 and 1948 Maestro Fellini wrote for two of Alberto Lattuada's movies which Sr. Rota scored. A few years later Fellini would hire Rota to write the score for his second feature, a comedy called Lo Sciecco Biancho (which was screened on TCM in September, 2006). This musical marriage lasted until the end of Rota's life in 1979, as he scored every Fellini movie between 1952 and 1979. His scores ranged from the heartbreaking trumpet strains of La Strada to the sweet nostalgia of Amarcord and the crass circus music of I Clowns. Though Fellini kept Rota busy, he also wrote scores of others: Visconti's aching romance Le Notte Bianchi and sweeping epic Il Gattopardo; Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliette (where his score was reborn as the lounge lizard's hit "A Time for Us") and winning an Oscar for Coppola's The Godfather II. He also had a knack for incorporating popular music with his scores. In La Dolce Vita Rota would intertwine his own notes with Arlen's "Stormy Weather", Perez Prado's "Patricia" and even "Jingle Bells". In 8 1/2 he creates a musical cioppino with Rossini and Wagner. Bravo Rota!
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Max Steiner: as a youth, he studied under Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. After some time working on Broadway, he came to Hollywood to arrange the score for RKO's Rio Rita and wrote the score for Cimarron. King Kong's impressive score solidified Mr. Steiner's reputation; portions of this 1933 score were revived for the 2005 remake. He brought the leitmotif to movies, lending themes identifiable to specific characters or places. Each major character in Gone With the Wind has his/her own musical theme. Mr. Steiner's aural icons include "Tara's Theme" and the title piece to A Summer Place; the latter which seems to define a time as well as a movie.
His relationship with the golden boy, Oscar, was long-term and enthusiastic:
Academy Awards
The Informer (1935)
Now, Voyager (1942)
Since You Went Away (1944)
Academy Award Nominations
The Gay Divorcee (1934)
The Lost Patrol (1934)
The Garden of Allah (1936)
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Jezebel (1938)
Dark Victory (1939)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Letter (1940)
Sergeant York (1941)
Casablanca (1943)
The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)
Rhapsody in Blue [shared with Ray Heindorf] (1945)
Night and Day [shared with Ray Heindorf] (1946)
Life with Father (1947)
My Wild Irish Rose [shared with Ray Heindorf] (1947)
Johnny Belinda (1948)
Beyond the Forest (1949)
The Flame and the Arrow (1950)
Miracle of Fatima (1952)
The Jazz Singer [shared with Ray Heindorf] (1952)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Battle Cry (1955)
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Manhattan Melodrama < > New York New York
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! II
in General Discussions
Posted
"...child actress Mailyn Harris (the Frankenstein monster threw her in the lake)..."
According to IMDB, Marilyn Harris was also in Bride of Frankenstein; probably an extra. Of course this is the movie where it turns out that neither Dr. Frankenstein nor his "monster" were killed after all. Maybe the the little girl wasn't dead either.