jdb1
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Posts posted by jdb1
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This puts me in mind of a television series I saw long ago about the Hollywood movie industry. It was narrated by James Mason, and it dealt with all aspects of movie making. I still remember things I learned from it. Anyone remember the name? Was it called simply "Hollywood?" That would be worth seeing again.
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About Paul Douglas:
When I was a girl and his movies were new, I didn't like him. I thought he was so plain, and he wasn't funny like William Bendix, and he seemed hardly to be acting at all. Fortunately, I'm now old enough and an experienced enough movie lover to appreciate his excellent work. What really turned me around was seeing him in "Clash By Night" a few years ago. He was terrific - so true, so moving. Then I reassessed him in "Letter to Three Wives" and "We're Not Married." How could I have been so blind? He's great.
On Donald MacBride:
Can't put the face to the name - I'll have to research him.
James Gleason - I forgot about "Come Fill the Cup." Yes - the man had range.
We need to deal with more of the ladies now - let's not slight them. How about the great Eve Arden; Fay Bainter; Agnes Moorehead; Brooklyn's own Thelma Ritter ........ keep 'em coming, posters.
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That's a good question, but I think the answer will prove as elusive as the quality itself. There are so many actors/actresses whom you can't take your eyes off of, and yet they may be distinctly lacking in what one would think of as Hollywood good looks. Edward G. Robinson and Shirley Booth are examples.
It's the same quality you can find in real life - there are some people who instantly dominate the attention of the room - it's just something they are born with. Some just go about their business, and some go to Broadway and Hollywood and capitalize on it.
So we can say that IT can be a case of fabulous good looks, a great energy, or just a quiet magnetism. And, at the same time, this whole concept of IT can be entirely a matter of personal taste as well. I like who I like, maybe you don't, and that suits me fine.
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So you did. My apologies - I read too fast!
I remember on this talk show I saw - it may have been Mike Douglas - remember him? - McQueen sang "Tico, Tico." That was really something.
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I agree with you about EGR - he is great in this film. It's the kind of part he was so very good at. He was perfectly believable as an insurance exec, and yet larger than life, as a movie star should be. He is woefully underappreciated in these days of superficial beauty worship.
A TCM tribute to him, focusing on his incredible range, would be a very good thing.
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Ouch, ouch. I'm trying to learn this game. It's like learning chess - you have to play with open moves to get the hang of it.
I think there are a dozen or so sci-fi films mentioned in one of the songs . . .
The Day the Earth Stood Still
It Came From Outer Space
The Invisible Man
King Kong
Forbidden Planet
Tarantula
When Worlds Collide
I think Flash Gordon's in there as well, and some others
These would comport with your "all hell breaks loose" clue.
If you have no patience with me, I'll leave it to the experts to complete this game, and I'll just watch. I know this stuff - I just don't yet know how you all like to formulate your clues. If someone else will participate, I'll humbly appreciate it.
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Oh boy, MAD LOVE. One of the best and most lurid of the old horrors. Certainly the best of the "Hands of Orloff" genre. Lorre was remarkable in that one, with his big bald head. Can't wait to see it.
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Some voices used to comic effect:
Eddie "Rochester " Anderson
Oscar Levant
Ned Sparks
ZaSu Pitts
Virginia O'Brien (is that who I'm thinking of? She had a very flat, expressionless way of speaking her lines)
Joan Davis
Mary Wickes
Joe E. Brown
Bert Lahr
It wasn't just what they said, it was the voices they used to say it.
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Douglass Dumbrille (G. Washington in "M. Beaucaire" and Buffalo Bill (Pony Express) in "The World Changes")
Frank Morgan as the charlatan (Wizard of Oz)
State prosecutor --- William Powell in Manhattan Melodrama
This would put them all in something called "The Emperor's Candelsticks" of which I know nothing. As Woody Allen said elsewhere - it's about Russia. "Hell" being the Russian revolution?
Given the "slip" - ??? A slip of paper hidden in the aforementioned candlesticks? ???
I'm not finding this easy at all, Metry. Should I be thinking in more obvious terms?
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Katharine Hepburn as a Chinese woman in "Dragon Seed"
Jane Russell as a society girl/debutante in "Foxfire"
Victor Mature as a decadent Persian doctor in "The Shanghai Gesture"
Kim Hunter as a sex-obssessed young wife in "A Streetcar Named Desire" (sexy as a vanilla malted)
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You've made me remember that I think Ann Sheridan had an usual speaking voice. There was a quality to it I don't think I've heard in other actresses. I don't know how to describe it - maybe metallic, though not unpleasant. Perhaps it was the way her voice recorded electronically, since I never heard her speak in person. But I always know it's her speaking, without seeing her face.
Theresa Wright was another who is instantly recognizable to me - a sort of throb in the voice. Mary Steenburgen has it, too.
No one has yet mentioned Butterfly McQueen. I saw her on some talk show when she was much older, and the voice still had that little-girl sound to it. And what about Tallulah?
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George Washington (a reference to the Gilbert Stuart portrait)?
G. Washington AND a mailman. Hmmm.
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I appreciate your quick response. Thanks very much.
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Yes, Selznick was really reaching in his Scarlett casting. I think I remember seeing Jean Arthur as well (all wrong), and I read somewhere that he was even considering Judy Garland at one desperate point. His brother finding and signing Leigh was certainly an act of Providence!
Well, even if you can't physically get to any of these film festivals any time soon, you can experience some of them vacariously on the Internet, or by mail. Many of them publish some pretty comprehensive brochures, with stills, which is the next best thing. Our Film Forum theater in New York is good for those, and also I've found some interesting information from the UCLA film school, which has a very extensive library of classic films to screen. Put yourself on some mailing lists, and you'll feel more included. I do that for classical music, since I'm never going to get to all the concerts I'd like, even though I live in NYC. At least I have a knowledge of what's going on. My imagination can fill in the rest.
Regards.
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Why thank you, Sabu lover. Have we met?
Message was edited by:
jdb1
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Those Miss Withers films are great, aren't they? It was an inspired pairing, those two!
There was a movie on TCM a few months ago, a real antique comedy with early Joan Crawford (of course I've forgotten the name). Edna May played her aunt, and she was not the rigid, spinster school marm, but a wise-cracking, cigarette smoking, tough old bird type, and actually rather attractive. I had never seen her play anything like that before. She was really good. I wonder if there are any more like that where she played against type.
James Gleason played characters who are like thousands of men in New York - I've known many of them in my lifetime. I think that's part of the allure of the character parts for us in the audience. They often (depending on the role) bring a sense of familiarity and grounding to a film that may have some dazzling big names in it.
Would you like to talk about, say, Keenan Wynn? His little bit as a drunk in "The Clock" was so funny, and rang so true. Loved him in "Without Love." I never found him a particularly handsome man, but I thought he was an attractive one. And I found him absolutely shattering in '"Nashville." That performance was really terrific.
Feel free to name your faves, and why.
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By the bye, I think Wallace Beery was Noah Beery's brother, not father. Noah Sr. was the father of Noah Jr., who appeared on "The Rockford Files" as James Garner's father.
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Yes, well, I tend to take exception to that characterization myself. I could never, in a million years, think of either the Laurel or Hardy characters as "cruel." Childlike, yes, naif, id-driven, but "cruel?" No. Theirs was an action-reaction behavior, with no cruel intentions that I ever saw. We have the L&H thread going on the board, Kitsy, if you'd like to continue a discussion of their comedy "conceits" there with other enthusiasts (detractors are also welcome for civilized debate), and leave this thread for the Stooges.
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We've touched on this subject briefly on some other threads. My favorite actor voice is Burgess Meredith. Very dry, distinctive, and very pleasing. Along those lines I also like the sound of the voice of character actor Victory Jory (similar, but deeper than Meredith's). Other male voices I find distinctive and interesting are Edward Arnold, Robert Mitchum, Marlon Brando and James Mason.
Among the women, I think Shirley Booth had an unmistakable voice. K. Hepburn, of course. I like the sound of Rosalind Russell's voice, and also Claudette Colbert's and Veronica Lake's. There it's not so much the voices, which are very pleasant, as the way of speaking. And in that category, I love the way Eve Arden and Gypsy Rose Lee spoke - very unusual and interesting cadence to their speech.
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Metry, no one's hazarded a guess to your last one since yesterday, including me. How about a little hint?
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Thanks. If this can't be fixed, would it be easier for me to simply abandon the old email ID and establish a new registration using the new email address, a new password, and a new screen name?
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Well, GM,here's a chance for you to take a "theme vacation." Check out the film festivals in some large city, take a few days off, and treat yourself to a cinematic holiday. I think these days you're more likely to find classic film festivals at colleges and museums. There are dozens of them here in NYC (in Brooklyn, too!) every year.
And I do agree with the previous postings - I can't imagine GWTW without Gable or Leigh. Having occasionally seen those Scarlett screen tests on TV reinforces that opinion. The other actresses just didn't cut it. (I seem to remember Paulette Goddard, among others. Have any of you seen those?)
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It's "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" I think it's a hoot. Anyone who has enjoyed watching all those really terrible sci-fi movies of the 50s should be able to appreciate this one. It gets the awfulness and pretentions of those old turkeys just right. The dialog is really funny, and the actors are terrific. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes movie-on-movie satire.
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James Gleason - yeah! I love the quirky, irrascible ones. It's interesting how the character actors became just as iconic to us as were the stars. James Gleason as the prickly ward heeler or cab driver or milk man (he was great in "The Clock"). Preston Sturges played up this angle with his character actor regulars, like Gleason, and the equally prickly William Demarest, and the rest. Those guys were worth the price of admission. And sometimes characters could be in the forefront. I'm having a Senior Moment right now and can't remember the name of the series of film with Gleason and Edna May Oliver. He's the gruff cop and she's the genteel but steely teacher who helps him solve murders. Anyone?
why do you love "old"movies?
in General Discussions
Posted
Your sentiments are wonderful, GM. TCM should reprint this on the main website - you have, I think, put into very eloquent words the thoughts of most of us who love the classics.
And specifically, I think you are on to something when you say that the new crop of films doesn't stay with us after we've seen them. I don't think most of them are intended to do so. It's the use it once, throw it away mentality. I can remember very little from current movies after the first few weeks, but I can still get shivers, or be saddened, or laugh, about films I saw thirty years ago.
Whatever its evils or economic drawbacks, the studio system had its good points, and making terrific movies was the primary good point. Also, this current mania for tasteless publicity and childish and objectionable behavior among film actors would never have been permitted back in the day. The people in charge are a different breed (most seem to be in various states of arrested development), and therein lies the difference in quality.