Swithin

Sadly that seems to be the case, Hibi, among a certain group. On the Ingrid Bergman thread about her Oscar win for Murder on the Orient Express, I was going to write that maybe she should have won a few years later, for Autumn Sonata. But then I checked out who actually did win in 1979, for a great performance, and realized I better keep my mouth shut.

Sorry, it was Jessica Grayson who played Addie the maid in The Little Foxes.

Lillian Hellman depicted African Americans positively in her plays, which filtered into her films. She had to portray them in roles that would have been realistic for the South she was writing about, but the black characters have more depth, such as Hattie McDaniel in The Little Foxes. As I recall, Hattie McDaniel's character, although a wise servent, was also fairly well-rounded in Blonde Venus. ("I know when a white man's browsin'!)

I didn't either, until I just checked IMDB. He seems to have played an elevator operator and was on 21 episodes. Here's a site that has an image of him in that role: http://funstuff2go.blogspot.com/2011/02/classic-tv-gems-my-little-margie_01.html

The movie's pretty awful, too, but fun in that way grade z horror can be. I'd like to see Best in his recurring role on My Little Margie, haven't seen that series in ages! I wonder how he's portrayed.

Willie Best appeared in many movies and also in early television. I recently watched The Monster Walks, an enjoyable grade z 1932 horror that he's in, billed as Sleep 'n Eat.

Paul Porcasi, one of my favorites, was in it. He played the Egyptian police chief. He adds something special to all the movies he's in. http://www.nndb.com/people/807/000346766/

Oland has a very interesting role in Shanghai Express, in which he plays a man who is half Chinese but who identifies himself as Chinese. Eugene Pallette asks him a fairly outrageous question about why? Oland also plays Dr. Yogami, an Asian, in Werewolf of London.

Forgot about The Ugly American, I went to see it as a kid, liked it so much I went back twice. Haven't seen it in years!

I like the old dark house in The Old Dark House (1932). "No beds! They can't have beds!" Also Boris Karloff's house in The Black Cat (1934) is quite something, inspired by some interesting modern architecture (as is his character's name).

Miss W., she wants to tell him. The psychiatrist -- played so well by the great Philip Dorn -- tells her she must not, it could be dangerous. But I agree with you about An Affair to Remember. How do you feel about Baby Jane ? At the end of that film, Jane says to Blanche, when she finds out the truth, "we could have been friends..." So many situations in films could have been happy, if only...

Just remembered another of my favorite cat scenes. It's a brief scene with Victor Francen in *The Mask of Dimitrios.* Peter Lorre goes to see Francen, who introduces and talks about his cats Abelard and Eloise, two Siamese, I believe. It's a great scene; Francen's performance is brilliant, and the cats are sweet.

Totally agree with you. Btw, I had a friend in London who was the son of Greer Garson's first husband (Edward Snelson). Every bit part in the movie is perfectly played. I tried to look up the church organist who plays hymns for Colman and Peters. Although so many uncredited cast members have been added to IMDB, that actor doesn't seem to be listed. Like the rest, he was wonderful.

It's one of my favorites, too. Watching the end of it today, I had two thoughts: home come the key to the cottege worked, after all those years? And wasn't anyone living there? Also that blossom-laden branch was as it had been years earlier! But these are points I bring up out of familiarity and affection for one of the greatest of films.

The name Pyewackett comes from the UK witch hunts of the 17th century. It was the name of a "familiar," or witch's assistant: an imp, or evil spirit, frequently taking the form of a cat,

Three horror-movie cats of note: Karloff's cat in The Black Cat, that Bela Lugosi is terrified of; The cat representing Bast, the Egyptian cat-goddess, in The Mummy; And, most creepy of all, the cat in one of the stories in Torture Garden, that will lead you to valuable coins if you provide corpses for it to feast on.

Two additional favorites: *The Last Hurrah*, though between the lines, it's as much about the film industry as about politics; *Every Day's a Holiday*, a great, lesser-known Mae West movie, which features Louis Armstrong leading a political parade.

Very amusing, Miss W., although I didn't know about the beer. I have a Canadian cousin -- my father's first cousin -- who is a film director/producer in England. He's from Toronto, so I know a bit about Canada. But ... Is it acceptable to called HM The Queen "titular?" I'm not a big fan of the TV show "House," but I do recall one episode whereby a man is admitted to the hospital for an injury. They are struck by the fact that he's always smiling and happy. Dr. House says, "maybe he's just Canadian." But it turns out he has a disease that has an unusual effect on his brain!

Dr. Couillie -- Laurence Criner in *King of the Zombies* (1941)

Favorite political movie: *Wilson*, one of the great movies of all time, with a real old-fashioned many-balloted convention. As a New Yorker, I have a soft spot for *Sunrise at Campobello*, particularly the final scene, when FDR stands at the podium to nominate Al Smith, while the best NYC song ever --"The Sidewalks of New York" -- is playing.

So many to sift through, but these certainly stand out: Isabel Adjani in The Story of Adele H Donald Sutherland in The Day of the Locust Geraldine Page in Interiors

He's a very sweet man, was a great friend of Kate Hepburn's, worked with her on several projects in addition to Lion in Winter. To think he was also little Ptolemy in Caesar in Cleopatra !

I love books and have (I think) a great personal library, but I think e-books are a brilliant enhancement. I can carry around hundreds of books and magazines when I travel, and many of them are free, because my arcane tastes include aged public domain titles, many of which are free on iBooks and Kindle. My degree is in History of Religions, and I studied the cultures of Sumer and Ancient Mesopotamia, among other subjects. Do you think, when Cunieform tablets were superseded, the people said wistfully, "oh, I really miss carrying around those two-ton tablets!"

A good guest host (has he ever been on?) would be *Anthony Harvey*, who directed The Lion in Winter and edited many important films, including a few for Kubrick (e.g. Dr. Strangelove, Lolita ). He also played Ptolemy, Vivian Leigh's little brother, in Caesar and Cleopatra. He lives out on Long Island -- I know him pretty well. He'd be great on TCM.

That is a great line!