jdb1
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Posts posted by jdb1
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Have a care, Sir. I work for a law firm that specializes in copyright and trademark infringement.
But thanks for this posting on Bolger. I wonder how many of you out there remember him? He was a wonderful, warm performer, whose iffy looks probably contributed to his being relegated to supporting/comic roles in movies.
His "Where's Charley?" was a very big hit on the stage. I have a CD of Broadway classics that has him singing "Once in Love With Amy," a song that is maddeningly easy to get stuck in your brain. It was also his sign-off tune on his TV show. (I'm singing it right now.)
If anyone has any Bolger reminiscences, we'd be glad to hear them.
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jdb1
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Thanks for the notice on the new Lorre book. I'd be very interested to read it; he had quite a career and life.
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That may be so - I've seen a great many Widmark (westerns and otherwise) films on the weekends over the last few months - maybe I was tuned to Fox. He is a favorite of mine as well. I recall seeing "Pickup on South Street" in the recent past.
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Hey, y'all. I've been reading your exchanges, and they are really good.
GM, as we discussed before, in terms of the use of color, the movie is even more beautiful on the big screen. I loved that about it the first time I saw it on screen, because that was also the first time I saw it in color! (Remember black & white TV sets?) This was 30 years ago, and I don't know what the condition of the print I saw was, but it certainly looked good, and color is used very creatively.
I agree, the "other" Selznick movie mentioned must have been "Rebecca."
I have a problem, I'm afraid, with Melanie, and that is that (forgive me GM) I really don't care much for De Havilland. Consequently, I feel negatively toward almost ever character she ever played. (The exception being "The Snake Pit" where I think she relaxed a bit and didn't try act like Claudette Colbert.) I suppose the mealy-mouthed behavior as Melanie was appropriate, and I disliked her as much as Scarlett did. I'm not so sure that Melanie's inner strength was intended as a Southern thing as much as a Woman thing. Scarlett's idea of a strong woman was one who stepped over anyone she considered too slow, and who stopped at nothing to get her way. She learned from Melanie that there are other ways for a woman to be strong, without being ruthless.
I can't help thinking about the "Went With the Wind" parody of Carol Burnett, and Dinah Shore's portrayal of Melanie. Pretty funny.
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Trigger. Especially unsaddled, rearing on a hilltop.
Roy Rogers would have been just another yodeler without him.
Maybe we should put Trigger on the "Breathtakingly Beautiful" thread as well.
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I second the sentiment. I appreciate that TCM shows many old films containing scenes which are now considered in questionable taste, many of them with good reason, but I believe we need to see such things so that we can see how far we have come, or how far we still have to go.
This brings to mind all that nonsense a few years ago, at the outset of this PC craze about banning "Huckleberry Finn" because it's racist. Mark Twain? Racist? Humbug!
If I do see anything on TV, or read anything, that makes me uncomfortable, I do indeed switch it off or put the book down. Freedom of speech works both ways, thank goodness.
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SLAUGHTER ON TENTH AVENUE: I know that I have seen this, somewhere, in some form. Of course after all these years, I can't remember where - film, excerpt on TV . . . . .
I do recall being absolutely blown away by Ray Bolger's dancing - it made me a fan of his for life. He did have some sort of variety show in the 50s, maybe one of those "summer replacement" shows, and I remember his dancing there as well. What you see in the few films of his that are broadcast these days doesn't begin to represent his talent. He was a strong, graceful and balletic dancer, much like Gene Kelly, but moreso. He didn't have that muscular, macho thing going that Kelly liked to use (one exception to that is Kelly's "Chocolat" scene in "An American in Paris," wherein he dances much more in the Astaire style). Not that I don't love Kelly, I do. But Bolger was a beautiful dancer, and he is now forgotten, save for playing the Scarecrow in You-Know-What, and most his his dancing there was cut.
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In my opinion, Hunter was quite good in everything he did. He didn't have the career he should have had. As often happens, he may have been held back by his looks, with producers fearing he wouldn't be taken seriously. From what I've read about him, he also had a rather ineffective agent (who was his second wife), who didn't handle his career very well. Now I'm getting sad, thinking about the stupid household accident that led to his untimely death. Sigh.
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MrWrite, apparently I misunderstood "you're next". You can have my question back. I'd rather guess than compose, anyway. I'll take that answer to my grave.
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jdb1
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Hunter as Jesus: I don't think the producers thought it was miscasting - I think they were going for ethereal, but manly. A tough combination. I'm a great fan of Von Sydow, but I couln't figure out why he was playing Jesus - weird.
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> Ashley was,IMO,a symbol of the Old South that just
> couldn't change with the vicissitudes of fortune-he
> was all the graciousness,the ease,the hospitality,and
> the insularity of the Old South,like the oaks of
> Twelve Oaks-he couldn't bend,he had to break. He'd
> have been OK in life if the war hadn't changed his
> whole way of life,the only life for which he was bred.
To GarboManiac:
We're not alone. DPD gets it about Ashley. DPD - have you seen our thread on "Essentials?" That's what we've been discussing. There's a lot more to the book/movie than pretty people in pretty pictures. If you like, we'll pick it up there.
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Hmmm . . . .
What do these actors have in common:
Eduardo Ciannelli
Rex Ingram
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I think we characterized him as "dreamy" back then. Call it what you will, he was a honey.
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ON BORROWED TIME.
We read that play in junior high, and I still sing that song, "Aunt Demetria's a PIS-mire" (to the tune of "Glory, Glory Halleluiah"), just the way Bobs Watson did. I wish I could sing it in front of you, to have the experience of someone not looking at me sideways when I do.
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jdb1
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Marco, is not the Girl Hunt Ballet in BANDWAGON a take on the Slaughter on Tenth Avenue ballet from ON YOUR TOES? Maybe 'rip-off' would be a better noun, only they didn't say that back then.
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Here's a topic: Who do you like of the character players who were very often cast as gangsters, or ganster-like? I'm very fond of Mike Mazurki, Alan Jenkins and Edward Brophy. And don't forget the molls.
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I've been patiently waiting for someone to mention him, but no one yet has. So let's all take a moment to contemplate the thought of:
JEFFREY HUNTER, with his shirt off, in "In Love and War." Mamma mia!
Or in anything, for that matter, with or without shirt. He was a man for whom the word "beautiful" was entirely appropriate.
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How cute. An amah name. As far as I know, she is still with us. Do you have any more information?
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The younger daughter character on "Roseanne" reminded me of Lynn's style.
I was thinking about Fields last night, and I recalled seeing on a TV bio of him (probably on the Biography Channel) in which it stated that his cynical asides were exactly like those of his mother, who used to sit on the porch of the boarding house she owned making caustic comments about her boarders and the passers-by under her breath. As I recall, he also looked very much like her, if you can imagine such a thing.
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These are interesting observations. I think, in Fields case, that the Micawber character could be interpreted as very Fields-like, so the fit was a good one. I believe Charles Laughton was originally slated to play the part.
I agree about Greenstreet. He was no Edmund Gwenn, ho-ho-ho.
I remember Googie Withers - she did a lot of the British dramas you see on public TV. I think she was in "The Lady Vanishes" and that ghost-story anthology film - is it "Dead of Night?" "Googie" seems to me to be such a typical British public school nickname, like "Stinky" and "Dodo" and "Piggy."
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Well, that of course brings to my mind Hepburn as Trigger Hicks (great name!) the rock-hurling hillbilly/witch in "Spitfire." Yipes! It's like when the studio made Bette Davis a platinum blonde a the start of her contract, and made her pose for all those Clara Bow-like publicity photos. Square peg/round hole.
I think someone here already mentioned Henry Fonda in "War and Peace"? Besides his midwestern accent among the refined British English speakers, It was the costuming that didn't suit him. I remember my mother once said that whenever he was onscreen, with his long legs and his tail coat, she thought of Jimminy Cricket. I guess there are many different ways that an actor doesn't fit the part.
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Larry fine
in Comedy
Moive, we have a thread going on the Stooges in "Your Favorites." We'd love to hear your thoughts on the boys. And we all love Larry.
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K. Hepburn being my favorite, I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. However, even she couldn't overcome the dubious casting she was subjected to in "Dragon Seed." I think she was good in "The Rainmaker," but, as you say, much too old for the part. If the Lancaster and Corey parts had been played by older actors, and the dialog tweaked a bit, maybe it would have worked better. The couple in the book "The African Queen" are about 20 years younger than were Hepburn and Bogart, but since those two actors were relative contemporaries, it worked.
Speaking of Lancaster, how about his playing Doc in "Come Back, Little Sheba?" He was 30 years too young for the part.
I can't agree about Gene Tierney in "The Shanghai Gesture." I thought she was quite good as the spoiled, out of control, Paris Hilton of Shanghai. The film is so over the top and artificial that there probably weren't many actors who could have carried off any of the roles with more success.
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I was able to make the change to make my new email address the default address. Thanks very much.
Miscast Actors
in Hot Topics
Posted
> I'll try not to run screaming from the TV
. After
> reading TCM's article on it, Spitfire should prove
> interesting.
"Interesting" is the word, but "weird" might be more appropriate. Maybe someone at her studio was playing a joke, or exacting revenge. Actually, although Hepburn looks pretty silly in this film, she tries gamely, and she could physically be taken for a tall, bony mountain woman. (She did have southern relatives, after all, so she had something to work from.) I think her performance in "Morning Glory" is far worse, and look what happened there!
At any rate, everyone who is interested in Hepburn should see "Spitfire" at least once.