benwhowell

NOBODY can compare to Fred Astaire! I'm also a big fan of Ann-Margret-from "Bye Bye Birdie" to "Kitten With A Whip" to "Tommy..." "Do you hear or fear or do I smash the mirror..."

I recently saw "Gunga Din" (On TCM, actually) for the first time! What a funny, action-packed classic that, immediately, went on my "favorite movies of all time" list...and, I must say, I did my share of "swooning" over Cary Grant AND Douglas Fairbanks, JR...

To Kill A Mockingbird/ Elmer Bernstein Any movie scored by Nino Rota Soundtracks to any movie from Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen and Robert Altman...

From "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane-? "Butcha are Blanche-Ya are in that chair!"

Don Knotts and Louise Lasser...

Actor-Tony Dow in "Leave It To Beaver-"provided the episode was directed by Kenneth Anger. Actress-Edie Sedgwick...

I would love to see a movie bio on Susan Cabot-directed by Todd Haynes-starring Catherine Keener or Hope Davis...Susan was raised in a series of foster homes-she later illustrated children's books and sang in NYC-first movie was extra work in "Kiss Of Death"(1947)-moved to Hollywood and did westerns, etc.-went back to NYC to do Harold Robbins' play "A Stone For Danny Fisher-"Roger Corman brought her back to Hollywood and starred her in several movies, including "The Wasp Woman-"She had a fling with King Hussein in the late '50's-She had one son, from her second marriage-His name is Timothy Scott Roman and he suffers from "dwarfism-"She kept him hidden in their Encino, CA home and injected him with "growth hormones" until he couldn't take it anymore-He bludgeoned her to death December 10, 1986...

Sterling Hayden..."The Star" with Davis, "Johnny Guitar" with Crawford and "Crime Of Passion" with Stanwyck...

"The Grapes Of Wrath" "A Streetcar Named Desire" "Splendor In the Grass" (Natalie Wood always makes me feel a little depressed-it's those beautiful sad eyes...) "La Strada" "Repulsion" "The Elephant Man" "Night, Mother" "A Woman Under The Influence" (Actually, any John Cassavetes movie) "The Ice Storm" and... Ang Lee really got me with "Brokeback Mountain." I managed to hold back the tears until the end-when Ennis opens that closet and says, "Jack, I swear..." I weeped...

...and Audrey Hepburn's blonde streaks as Holly Golightly...

Man, you guys have great memories. "Touch Of Evil" and "The Player" both feature the definitive long tracking shots. James Wong Howe was great at tracking shots (and many other innovative camera techniques)-Check him out tonight on TCM. I recently watched "Fellini Satyricon" (on VHS)- a visually stunning depiction of ancient (decadent) Rome with hypnotic tracking shots.

Actors- Gregory Peck/ Jimmy Stewart/ John Garfield/ Humphrey Bogart/ Robert Mitchum/ Peter Lorre/ James Mason/ Melvyn Douglas/ Montgomery Clift/ Roddy McDowall/ Laurence Olivier/ Max Von Sydow/ Dean Stockwell/ Marlon Brando/ Edmund Gwenn/ Jason Robards/ John Gielgud/ James Garner/ Phillip Seymour Hoffman/ Javier Bardem... Actresses-Katherine Hepburn/ Bette Davis/ Barbara Stanwyck/ Vivien Leigh/ Hattie McDaniel/ Elizabeth Taylor/ Marilyn Monroe/ Joanne Woodward/ Gena Rowlands/ Anne Bancroft/ Ellen Burstyn/ Tuesday Weld/ Ruth Gordon/ Diane Keaton/ Meryl Streep/ Sissy Spacek/ Natalie Wood/ Julianne Moore/ Alfre Woodard/ Catherine Keener/ Laura Linney...

To Kill A Mockingbird The Wizard Of Oz Sunset Boulevard Midnight Cowboy The Philadelphia Story Cabaret Auntie Mame Gone With The Wind Nashville Rosemary's Baby (It's so hard to stop at ten...)

As film lovers, I'm sure we all love a good movie about Hollywood...for a feel of contemporary Hollywood, I think Robert Altman's "The Player" would be hard to beat. A movie I've been obssesed with (for years) is John Schlesinger's "The Day Of The Locust." It's a hedonistic and macabre depiction of '30's Hollywood. The entire cast appear to be "stoned" throughout the movie-including Karen Black, William Atherton, Geraldine Page, Burgess Meredith, Billy Barty and (I saved the best for last) Jackie Earl Haley (playing an obnoxious little girl (!) named Adore) and Donald Sutherland (playing Homer Simpson look-a-like...Homer Simpson!) The ending, with Homer and Adore coming to terms, has to be one of the most disturbing endings in a mainstream(?) Hollywood movie-from 1975...This movie leaves me feeling like I should go into detox.

One that "sticks out" in my mind is from the original(!) "A Star Is Born." I saw "it" on a DVD I bought at a discount store for one dollar. It is, uh, a dangling ****. (Can I write that on this forum?) It belongs to Fredric March...can you say "well hung." Oops, I went too far...

Anybody have any trivia on why this great novel has never been adapted for the big screen? I think it would have been a great vehicle for John Garfield. Now-I suppose George Clooney would option it...but Mark Ruffalo gets my vote. Who is John Galt?

As for TV episodes-One of my all time fave episodes of "All In The Family" is a Christmas one with a friend of Mike and Gloria (home from "dodging the draft" in Canada) sitting down to dinner with a friend of Archie (who's son has already died in Vietnam.) I look forward to seeing it every Christmas...a real tearjerker...

What irony! I just posted my picks for best anti-war films on the "favorite war film" thread...but I forgot to include "Woodstock."

"Gone With the Wind," "Since You Went Away," "MASH," "Dr. Strangelove...," "Paths Of Glory," "Coming Home," "Apocalypse Now," etc.

There are a lot of great tv movies that have been virtually ignored. TV Land did show a few awhile back, but they were the usual ones that turn up-"Sybil," "Brian's Song," "The Day After," etc. I want to see "The Neon Ceiling," "My Sweet Charlie," "That Certain Summer," "Isn't It Shocking," "Born Innocent" and on and on. I wish TCM would. Didn't they show "Duel?"

John Garfield and Marilyn Monroe. I see them as Stanley and Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

I'll define contemporary as-the bulk of their movies were in the past fifteen years. Todd Haynes/ Todd Solonz (he really breaks barriers with taboo subject matter)/David Fincher/ Spike Jonze/ Paul Thomas Anderson/ Darren Aronofsky/ Michelle Holefcenter (Didn't research the spelling on those last two names-I apologize if not correct...)/Michael Gondry/ Ang Lee/ Alfonso Cuaron...Who did I leave out?

oops! Actually, it's flyswatters with red dots in the middle...

There's so many! Two that come to mind are "Momento" (because it was really the beginning!) and Robert Altman's "Nashville" ('70's social/political "good intentions" gone wrong, but, at least Barbara Harris gets her day-going on about Clorox bottles and red flyswappers with red dots in the middle...)

...though I live at 5135 Kensington Avenue and he lives at 5133... "Meet Me In St. Louis"