Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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Two films I vaguely remember from my teen-age years are *Chappaqua* (1966) and *Changes*
(1969). I think they fit your theme.
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Tahama (Cook and High Priestess) -- Madame Sul-Te-Wan in King of the Zombies (1941)
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Lots of conjecture here. I would hope that the obsession with "household names" would not play into showing any of the new "old" films, should TCM acquire those titles. I would like to see those rare old Mae West films -- Every Day's a Holiday and Klondike Annie -- but I am weary of the star ****ing which goes on, on this board. Let's celebrate the lesser-known, the character people, and not comb the streets for yet another Cary Grant film. I really want to see those Universal titles that Prince S. posts from time to time.
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Hi TopBilled,
I'm afraid I wasn't clear. I wasn't saying that TCM should show the Anna Neagle film instead of the MacDonald Bitter Sweet. I was saying that the MacDonald version is so reviled by people who love the work that it should not be shown at all. It's considered an embarrassment. Plenty of other MacDonald works, which aren't being shown, some of which have been mentioned, would have been better options, rather than a second-rate remake.
So I am now exactly on the topic of the thread: "Too bad we're seeing the wrong Jeanette MacDonald."
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Also it's a shame TCM is showing *Bitter Sweet*+,+ a film that is disliked by Noel Coward aficionados. During a recent Noel Coward Festival in NYC, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, intending to screen the 1933 Anna Neagle version, mistakenly got the MacDonald version. When the credits came up, the audience became aghast. They showed the film but had to give refunds and got the proper film shipped in for a later screening.
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Katie Nolan -- Dorothy McGuire in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
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The pacing of *Peter Ibbetson* has been called "glacial." Nevertheless it is a great film. If it put you to sleep, and you want an even longer nap, I suggest another masterpiece of surrealism, *Celine and Julie Go Boating*, which was revived at the Film Forum in NYC a few months ago. Nearly four hours of bliss (or sleep for some)!
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*Peter Ibbetson* has been called (by at least two French critics for what it's worth) one of the great surrealist films. Based on a book by George Du Maurier, it's about a love affair that is so consuming, it transcends space. The only example of a similar situation on film that I know of is the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen in Lord of the Rings. (I wonder if Tolkien was influenced by Du Maurier.) In addition to Gary Cooper in the eponymous role, it has the loveliest of all actresses, Ann Harding. With a great cast, and directed by one of Hollywood's giants: Henry Hathaway.
http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/.a/6a00e5523026f5883401157133ca89970b-pi
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Still waiting for *Peter Ibbetson*.
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*Captain Jorham* -- Joseph Crehan in Anthony Adverse
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It's an interesting concept, I can't say I quite understand it. But maybe an interesting subject for a thread is, "who's on your ignore list?"
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I had high hopes for *Orlando.* It's one of my favorite novels. Obviously a big challenge to film, I think *Potter* made rather a stodgy mess of it -- all British art direction and not very good cinema. (I say this as a respectful Anglophile who always looks for the best in British work.) Swinton was good in the strange eponymous role, but the weight of the film defeated everyone involved with it. It never quite achieves "the wild goose..."
I haven't seen it since it came out -- I will look at it on TCM and see if my opinion has changed.
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I think an occasional judicious newer movie would be ok. Too many and TCM would be like FOX or AMC, or so many other networks, and then, what's the point? Every organization has its "brand," and that could be tarnished, and for what reason? TCM has a great, recognized brand, no company in its right mind would want to mess with that.
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Right, if it's one or two it's not going to kill us. If it's much more, it will kill TCM, which is different now, why make it the same as the others?
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I agree with you, Miss W., but boring is in the eye of the beholder isn't it, whether it's in movies or threads about movies?! There are certain threads I never go into anymore, but they go, on, and on, and on...
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That Forsyte Woman in the Dunes
Next: Fog
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We also had a print of it where I worked, so I continue to think that the anti-Robeson campaign may have been an individual thing (how accurate is Wiki anyhow?), whereas the contractual withdrawal because of the remake was formal. There were plenty of movies shown, on television and elsewhere, that featured stars who were blacklisted.
I guess the words "widely seen" in the Wiki article may be the key, but many of the early films were not widely seen in those pre-video; pre-revival house days. How many old Universal films are we still waiting for TCM to show -- Prince Saliano provides us with lists regularly.
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*Show Boat* (1936) was withdrawn for a while because of the 1951 remake. It (the 1936 version) was regularly shown around NYC in the late 1960s/early 1970s, particularly at the old Theater 80 St. Marks, often on a double bill with Cimarron. Whether theaters elsewhere in the country (or television) didn't show it was their own call.
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I knew Millie Natwick slightly, we had a close mutual friend. He invited me to a dinner party one night and asked me to bring a movie to watch after dinner. Four guests: me, my friend, Millie, and a woman named Babs. I brought Love Me Tonight which we watched after dinner. Millie, whom I had met before, lived on Sutton Place. I gave her and Babs a lift home in a taxi. I had met her before: a lovely, talented, intelligent down-to-earth woman and a great actress. Loved the theater, she went to London often, staying at the old Hyde Park Hotel.
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The '36 *Show Boat* is my favorite musical, partly because of the actors/singers; partly because of the incredible score; and partly because it was shot by a director who knew how to use the camera -- James Whale. Look at the scene of Paul Robeson singing Old Man RIver, nothing can touch it for artistry, in any musical.
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I miss Man Beast ! Usually when they want to drag out a Yeti-type movie, they drag out The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas. Give us Man Beast !
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Andrew Undershaft -- Robert Morley in *Major Barbara* (1941)
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Abandon Ship of Fools
Next: Khyber
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Sexual identity in classic films
in General Discussions
Posted
Yes, so right about Wings. Also Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Outlaw, and of course Glenn Ford and George Macready in Gilda. (Check out Macready's walking stick!)