jdb1

Yes, you're right. I stand corrected. And people should read it even if they never see the film.

This doppelganger thing is truer than we think. Years ago,a co-worker of mine took a vacation to Hawaii, and he brought back for me the flight magazine. He said the model on the cover, rather Polynesian looking for this Hawaiian flight, looked just like me, and you know, she did! I still have that magazine somewhere to remind me of those long-ago days when I was a Size 8. So there you have me - a vaguely Polynesian-American, Brooklyn bred, dark-eyed formerly Ina Balin. Ah me. I find it a little odd, though, because everyone said my mother looked like Anne Baxter, which she did, and I look very much like my mother. My father was a dead ringer for the French orchestra conductor Pierre Boulez. My brother looks just like Howie Mandel. How do these things happen? Aloha!

I'd like to bring back Preston Sturges and his company of actors; Charles Chaplin, W.C. Fields, Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton, and others of that ilk, to instruct the so-called "comedy" writers of today in the art of being funny, and of being a comic actor. They all managed to be screamingly funny without a single **** joke!

By the way, Stoney, I remember Gretchen Corbett well. Besides "Rockford Files," she was in a lot of TV in the 70s. She was generally cast as an independent and resourceful young woman, so I'd say that she had, not a bulbous nose, but a STRONG one! If people make these comparisons about who we look like, at least we know we're getting a bit of attention, no?

I worked with a guy, when we were in college, who looked just like Steve McQueen. Once we were talking, flirting, etc. at my desk, and I had a stapler in my hand which I was clicking (flirtatiously, of course), and I put a staple right into my palm. Of course, you all know I just went right on talking as if nothing had happened! Who wouldn't have done the same for Steve McQueen? Yeah, I wonder what he looks like now?

The most painful aspect of Van Johnson is watching him dance. Like the hippos in "Fantasia" - graceful, but lumbering. There were other tall dancers in the movies who managed not to look like a loosely-put-together series of potato sacks when dancing (Dan Dailey, for instance).

> Huh? I thought this was one of the most depressing > films I've ever seen...but that's my opinion!! When I > want to get out of a funk I watch "Laurel and Hardy" > but that's also another of my opinions!! I agree with you there, TMN. Not only is "The Grapes of Wrath" a depressing film, I also don't like it very much as a movie. Never been able to get through it, and it's not just because it's sad and full of adversity. I find it kinda preachy and holier-than-thou in tone, unlike the book upon which it's based. I think the story, the characters, and the facts surrounding it speak for themselves, and don't need to be layed on with that cinematic trowel. It's sort of like one of public radio's aural documentaries. I'm also with you on L&H - they are so very nice to spend time with. So when I'm feeling down, I turn first to just about any Tracy-Hepburn comedy. Witty, funny (not always the same thing), and with portrayals of adults who like each other and respect each other's feelings and intelligence. I also like the Lucy-Desi "Long, Long Trailer" for the same reason, and because I think Lucy looks absolutely gorgeous in that one. My other picker-upper is -- dare I say it -- "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." Can't help it - it's sooo subversively funny. Piccolopupala!

It's odd, isn't it? On the one hand, you get the impression that the Academy doesn't think of musicals as "real" award-worthy cinema, yet nominations are made in what may seem the most un-award-worthy places. It's as they say: It's all politics. I stopped watching that farce decades ago.

I remember reading in one of the many biographies of KH that she was at a preliminary screening of one of her films and hit the roof when she saw her name misspelled onscreen. Maybe she was particularly sensitive because she was named for, and was so close to, her mother. Have you seen in the news that Bryn Mawr now has a Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center for Performing Arts, which will give out yearly awards and grant scholarships? The grants will be not just for film and theater, but for women's health and rights matters. It was named for both KH and her mother (who was a women's rights advocate). They were both Bryn Mawr alums. You go girls!!

When I was younger, my friends told me I looked like Ina Balin. Today, you would get a "Who's that?" from most everyone, but I trust TCM lovers have some idea who that nice lady was. I liked the comparison, but bemoaned the fact that while I had her general appearance and coloring (it's the drinking water in Brooklyn, I suppose), I didn't have her beautiful green eyes, only muddy brown ones. Now I suppose I look like middle-aged Ina Balin - she was about my age now or a little younger when she died, poor thing. However, I would have much preferred to look like Dana Wynter, but c'est la vie.

SusannO - please see my PM for discussion of this riddle.

GM, good thing La Hepburn isn't around to see you misspelling her name: it's KathArine. I understand she got rather peeved when that happened. That's one tall, red-headed bundle of wrath I wouldn't want to incite, here or in the Beyond (which she said she didn't believe in, but even she could have been wrong!).

A hero worshipper loves a real estate salesman, the leader of the year, and goes dancing with a frontiersman, incurring the disapproval of authorities, who try to separate them all . The worshipper is questioned by a Goldwyn Girl and counselled by a plus-sized attraction. The outcome is somewhat fishy, but everyone is happy and looks forward to more dazzling nights. "The authorities" is not a character(s) in this instance. There are 5 actors described.

INHERIT THE WIND Gene Kelly - "An American in Paris" Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde - Spencer Tracy AND Frederic March (in separate movies, of course) [Your previous version: F. March as Death in "Death Takes a Holiday." I didn't find anything wrong with that clue. Your prose continues to be elegant.] Since today is the anniversary of the end of the Scopes Trial, it's a good choice, Mr. Write.

> The 94 version isn't bad, but Mrs. March suddenly > morphs into a feminist. Of course, this is probably > closer to Louisa May Alcott's original vision--she > hated the ending with Jo and Professer Baer. It was > redone at the request of her editor. Ugh, tracey! I think the 1994 version is ghastly, and an insult to the book. When it was circulating, I referred to it as "Little Mall Girls." It's another case of ill-advised movie makers thinking they are going to "improve" a story to make it more "relevant." Well - if this book has lasted in public favor all these years, it's not because it's NOT relevant. I understood when I first read it, at the age of 9 or so, that it was about independent women who had the intelligence and courage to fend for themselves during a difficult period. I honestly don't think the feminist angle would have been as hammered into us by Alcott, even if she could have done so, as it is in this wrongheaded movie. There's not much in the Harry Potter books or movies that insists, in so many words, that Harry is a neglected and troubled young man struggling to control his powers, and the onset of adolescence/adulthood, but I think we all get it. As is all too often the case in Hollywood, the re-makers of "Little Women" just didn't trust us to figure it out for ourselves, and they felt compelled to make it as simplistic and contemporary as possible. Maybe it's because they didn't trust their own interpretation of the book? As for the book's "happy ending," there's a literary practice that hasn't changed at all over the years. Writers are still vying with editors to maintain their artistic ingegrity, and most don't win. I'll take the Cukor/Hepburn version, which I think is truest to the spirit of the book, and even the Allyson version, which is essentially a pale carbon copy of the first one, any day over the revisionist version of 1994.

Light Bulb Variation Variation: Q: How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A: None. They simply declare darkness the new standard.

I've got more lawyer jokes: Q: What's the difference between a bad lawyer and a good lawyer? A: The bad lawyer may let a case drag on for years. The good lawyer can make it go on even longer. Q: What do you get when you cross the Godfather with a lawyer? A: An offer you can't understand. Q: How many lawyers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: How many can you afford?

> No Boo Radley? Well, heck, why not have "The > Yearling" without the deer? > > Of course, Casablanca actually was an > unproduced play called "Everybody Comes to Rick's" > written by Joan Alison and Murray Burnett and sold to > Warners by the authors for 20 grand.> > I think that a good playwright could stage "The > Ox-Bow Incident" as a play with most of the action > centering around the saloon. The hanging, etc. could > be behind a scrim in semi-darkness and the various > characters about to be hung could each have their say > downstage. Well, maybe... "Mockingbird" worked surprisingly well w/o Boo. It's a rich enough story to be cut into pieces. As far as "Casablanca," well, I thought it would make a good stage production, but that doesn't mean I'd want to see it. Not my favorite film by any means. The notorious "wrote it as they went along" shows all over it. I'd be interested to see the original conception. "Ox Bow" - now that's a really good idea. It's a very small setting about very big ideas. It could be a kind of inverse to "Twelve Angry Men." Since Broadway these days seems so averse to any kind of originality, it's surprising they don't adapt more screen-to-stage than they already do. "Nightmare on Elm Street - The Musical (On Ice!)"

The movie "Enchantment" (1948) uses the English folksong "Polly Oliver" as a recurring musical theme. I first saw the movie when I was a young teen, and since then hearing that song (I had it as one of my piano pieces as a child, and I often find myself humming it) makes me feel a bit melancholy, because I associate it with lost love.

> "The version she was in was very pared down, I > think, but no less effective than the film." > > I guess it would be difficult to stage a chase scene > with a ham running through the woods on stage. Yeah - they must have had trouble casting the mad dog, too, 'cause they left him out of it. No Boo Radley, either - just the trial and all the hubbub surrounding it. That's why I think the actual stage version is probably more expansive than what the kids put on. I don't know who did the dramatization. I suppose "Casablanca" would translate well to the stage - what do you think?

Lawyer jokes!! Q: What do you have when you have three lawyers up to their necks in mud? A: Not enough mud. Q: How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? A: His/her lips are moving. Variation: Q: How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? A: Other lawyers look interested. Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and a vulture? A: Lawyers collect frequent flyer miles. OR: Lawyers wear jewelry. Q: What's the difference between a lawyer and God? A: God doesn't think he's a lawyer. Apparently legally necessary disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on TV. (However, I've worked for lawyers for 30 years, so I know what I'm talking about [that's scienter].)

> The Women started on stage and was brought to > the screen. It was a devilish hit on Broadway in > 1937-8 with 666 performances. It's been somewhat of > a revolving door since the beginning. I wonder if > Room with a View and To Kill a > Mockingbird would work in a stage adaptation... There is a stage adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird," and quite a nice one. In fact, my daughter appeared in a production of it when she was younger - it was with a teen drama troupe. She played the adult Scout, who narrated the proceedings - supposedly her reminiscences. The version she was in was very pared down, I think, but no less effective than the film. I've seen a notice in the newspapers for a small theater company in Brooklyn (adults, I'd imagine) performing the play. I don't know if it's the same version.

The movie is only the first half of the book. I would have liked this movie a lot better without Julie Harris in it. I don't understand the big fuss over her, although I have never seen her on the stage -- maybe she's better there. To me, she always looked and acted like a fussy, middle-aged woman, even when she was young. I cannot abide her "Drahhmahh School" accent. It makes me disbelieve everything she says. Of course, no words could do justice to Dean - we lost a great one there.

Yay! Clara Bow - a Brooklyn Girl. She was a beautiful woman, a gifted comedienne, and not at all as terrible in her talkies as she thought she was.

JackB, I am delighted to read all of your opinions here, and you are welcome to voice them, as far as I'm concerned. If we all agreed, all the time, what would be the purpose of this exchange? There are obviously lots of people on these boards, and in the world at large, who are Allyson fans. I'm not one of them. I was sad to hear of her death, but that won't turn me into an admirer of her work. I looked in on some of the films run today, and I haven't had a change of heart. As far as I can see, her two modes of acting are sticking out her bottom lip, and/or rolling her eyes back and forth. It started to wear thin pretty soon. This doesn't mean I dislike Allyson, but it means I don't think she's "All That" either. I did like this version of "Little Women" a little better this time than I have in the past, but I just don't get any sense of depth from Allyson's acting, and a steady diet of surface just isn't enough when you've read and loved the book, and seen and loved Hepburn in the role. I don't see the need for any disclaimers here - we should all understand that the opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the mangement. It's like people who make silly or outrageous comments and then say "No, no. I'm just kidding!" Well, duh. As has been said: "That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!"