Swithin

mrroberts wrote: Ronald Reagan never had anything close to the star power of a Cagney or Grant. I agree. I think *Kings Row* is a fine, deeply moving film, with many great things about it, but it suffers from its two male leads.

It doesn't really affect my enjoyment of a film if I don't agree with an actors politics, or if they've done something I might not approve of. However, if I find an actor shares my politics, or does something I really approve of, it can enhance my enjoyment of the performance. I like knowing that Myrna Loy was a liberal! Eugene Pallette was a right-winger (at least). It doesn't affect the fact that I enjoy his performances.

A question like the one that was posed is pregnant with possibilities and politics. No way to avoid it. Better ask the OP why, of the zillions of actors about which the question could have been asked, he chose Reagan.

GILDA Next: a pool with visions

Signora Buvino -- Rafaela Ottiano in *Anthony Adverse* (1936)

Make something up. You can be anyone you want to be.

Reagan could only play himself, he was not exactly a Daniel Day-Lewis/Maryl Streep kind of actor. So, I think he would have been cast as the Sheriff of Rottingham in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).

It scared me, too. It's one of those diseases that was so terrifying ages ago but is actually now curable and not that contagious. Remember that scene in A Funny Thing... "Unclean! Unclean!" They probably had little to fear. And I've heard that the leprosy mentioned in the Bible might actually have been a much more innocuous skin disease. Leprosy figures very prominently in the silent version of The Indian Tomb. The main character goes into a leper cave and accidentally steps on a leper's face (he seems to be partly buried in the sand). The leper curses him, hence all the trouble that the hero endures for most of the rest of the movie.

"There is Thingumbob shouting!" the Bellman said, "He is shouting like mad, only hark! He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head, He has certainly found a Snark!" (Courtesy Lewis Carroll)

Not at all under appreciated by me! One of the greats, from The Old Dark House and Bride of Frankenstein, to his smaller parts in Last Holiday and The Man in the White Suit. And a cousin of one of my all-time idols: the explorer/writer/photographer Wilfred Thesiger, who as a young man was a guest at the coronation of Heile Selassie.

Has *Morocco* (1931) been mentioned? The scene of Dietrich going off into the desert, removing her high heels first, is iconic.

One thing I found curious. He responded to a rather innocuous post by saying, "who the hell cares;" then softened/edited that post later on. That's what intrigued me. That kind of response can be called into question -- perhaps it was.

I agree with your post. Earlier this year there was an instance on this board of one poster commenting on another poster's abundance of typos, and it turned out there was a very good reason for that. So one needs to be sensitive. But in reference to the point about the films, I always do assume that, if one finds his/her way to this board, he/she is interested in "classic" films. When I was young, the films I wanted to see on television were made decades before I was born. It was partly Million Dollar Movie and Shock Theater that made me a fanatic, when I was very young!

I was wondering what was the matter with Ian Bannen's face in Braveheart. Just looked at the IMDB -- it actually lists the character as "The Leper."

I was thinking more 12-16, but of course you never know!

I haven't been following Mike's posts too closely, but based on what I've read, I assume he's a kid.

uh...yes! One of the great surreal masterpieces. (I thought you were joking with the Warhol title, I had never heard of it.) You're thread flash...

But we expect our friends at TCM to be genius film geeks!

I'm up to 97% capacity on my DVR/cable box, which coincidentally is 97 movies. Almost all from TCM. Some, I want to keep; others I watch and erase. This week, I've watched and erased The Curse of the Howling Dog and Devotion (Ann Harding), both of which I enjoyed immensely. I have a DVD collection as well, but I live in a NYC apartment and haven't got the space that the people in houses have! If TCM were available in HD, that would leave me much less space on the DVR, as HD recordings take up alot of room.

This may not be a very appealing thread, but I've been thinking of two films lately: *The Indian Tomb,* a terrific silent epic (Joe May, dir., stars Conrad Veidt) with which Fritz Lang was involved (and which he later re-made); and *Dungeon of Harrow*, a creepy grade-z 1964 horror film. Both feature leprosy as part of the plot. Other films featuring the disease include *Ben Hur* as well as all the films related to Father Damien. Any others? *A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum* also includes a brief scene in which the disease is mentioned.

Since today is Boris Karloff's birthday and also Black Friday, it would have been a perfect day to show Black Friday (1940).

Speaking of modern desert films, I'm a big fan of The Sheltering Sky (1990). Strange, sad, mysterious film.

The BFI had great pretenstions of artiness. Good subject, but so many good desert films left out. (Btw, the list includes non-British films as well.)

As close as you can be, but still be wrong! Try again.

The iconic film of The Importance of Being Earnest is not a 40s film but 1952. I guess my favorite 1940s British films range from Olivier's Henry V to the low-brow but utterly British Old Mother Riley films.