Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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Without fail, he who is importuned by the Marvelettes, tinkles and tinkles again.
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Sprocket, I can't tell whether by "unyielding plaster" you are referring to the cast on his leg; or to Grace Kelly's face and personality! (I assume the latter). :^0
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*I Remember Mama*
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Possibly James Stewart in *Rear Window*. Broken leg obviously = impotence, relative to Grace Kelly; hence leading perhaps to the voyeurism. Plenty of other sexual hints in the film. But he seems to get excited when Wendell Corey comes around! Check out those glances they give each other!
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Thayer David as Count Saknussem in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), for what he did to that duck.
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I wasn't sure what Mud's last comment meant. Was it a hint because Finance was wrong? Or a joke about the movie, which I haven't seen? In any case, it was very nice of Finance not to just assume he was right and forge ahead without waiting!
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But you can't watch threads, unless you are registered with a current e-mail.
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You can't. I've been asking on and off for two years. They just can't make it happen. I assume there's some deep dark reason, otherwise they would have figured out a way by now. I changed my e-mail and no longer have the one I originally registered with, but to change it I would have to totally re-register. There are certain benefits to having your e-mail up-to-date, but I guess I'll continue being deprived of them.
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Golly, it looks like we can have a "what is rock-and-roll?" discussion here, which rivals the "what is classic film?" discussion! Of course, "Love Me Tender" uses the tune for Aura Lee, a Civil War song.
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I remember seeing the film at Radio City Music Hall. I sort of liked it but was disappointed, because I had heard the Broadway cast recording of the show. Several good songs were not used in the film.
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I wish TCM would show the first outdoor Technicolor film, *The Trail of the Lonesome Pine* (1936). It's a great story with a great cast (Beulah Bondi has one of her best roles ever), and it is beautiful to look at, partly thanks to Technicolor.
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*Vincent Price* as Matthew Hopkins in *Witchfinder General* (aka The Conquerer Worm )
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That coolness is one of the things I like about Ann Harding. There's enough ham out there, often mistaken for great acting.
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I LOVE *Ann Harding*. She is brilliant in Peter Ibbotson, which has been called one of Hollywood's great surrealist masterpieces. In Double Harness, she has a scene in which she is cooking dinner for her father, while at the same time trying to explain something. Never has a cooking scene been acted so well. Many of her films are not well known -- Biography of a Bachelor Girl is another of her gems -- but I think she is truly one of the greatest (albeit certainly underrated) actresses of the golden age of Hollywood.
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Sorry, I did it too quickly. I have to add Marlene and Roz! Can't think whom to delete, so I have a dozen! I stayed away from the "later" years, so didn't consider Audrey or Deborah Kerr. Kerr would have been on my list.
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JJG, you asked me a few pages back about actresses whom I thought had a better legacy than Stanwyck. I had said I like her and love some of her films, but she's not in my top ten. So here are my top ten, not in terms of legacy, but in terms of my favorites. I don't distinguish between "stars" and "character" actresses.
My top ten, in alphabetical order:
Joan Blondell
Beulah Bondi
Bette Davis
Olivia De Havilland
Irene Dunne
Kay Francis
Greer Garson
Ann Harding
Katharine Hepburn
Myrna Loy
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I agree with you, JG, about the Loretta Young win being the biggest booboo in Oscar history. The Scandinavian accent argument never occurred to me! Of course, I think the biggest Best Actor booboo was Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady. I've posted that here before, and people have rushed to Rex's defense. But look at the competition that year! Rex walked through his Broadway role.
I met Luise Rainer many years ago, on a cold night in January 1983, I think. She was very sweet, and concerned about Maureen Stapleton, who hadn't put her galoshes on.
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JG, I agree with some of what you say, but not about Luise Rainer. I like her performances, particularly in Ziegfeld. I haven't seen The Good Earth, apart from clips.
There have been many arguments on this board about Oscar booboos. I love Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama and wondered why she didn't win for that film. Then I looked at the nominees: What a year! -- Jane Wyman, Irene Dunne, Ingrid Bergman, Barbara Stanwyck, and Olivia De Havilland, all for great performances. (Wyman won).
I have to admit -- don't throw stones at me -- that, although I love many of Barbara Stanwyck's films/performances, I don't think of her among, say, the top ten, or as Andrew Sarris might say, "The Pantheon." I know she's beloved here, and I like her jes' fine, but not as much as some. And I'm not a big Garbo fan, though I like a few of her films well enough.
But Gladys George! I think of her sitting at the bar in The Roaring Twenties, singing to Cagney, and at the end of that film. She gives one of the great, iconic performances. Is there any more memorable ending? She has one of the greatest final lines of all time: "He used to be a big shot."
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Adultery in older movies and plays frequently portrayed the unfair fact that it was ok for a man but not a women. One of the few exceptions to that "rule" is Dietrich in Blonde Venus. Her husband -- Herbert Marshall -- can't forgive her for sleeping with Cary Grant until the end of the movie, after her many travails. And she only sleeps with Grant to get money for Marshall's medical treatment! Blonde Venus is a unique film in many ways.
I'm going to look at The Awful Truth again -- I didn't watch the whole think when it was on last week. It doesn't bother me that there is no visible source of income-earning. That, too, was a fact of the times. Many plays and films were simply about rich people and aristocrats. This was of course way before John Osborne!
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By horse opera I assumed you meant this:
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Here's a pretty good analysis of The Awful Truth. http://www.filmsite.org/awfu.html
I'm not a big fan of My Favorite Wife, either. But The Joy of Living and Theodora Goes Wild are really good, I think. In The Joy of Living, Ms. Dunne introduces the song "You Couldn't Be Cuter."
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I think The Awful Truth is a perfect movie -- the structure, the script, the acting, the design. It amazes me everytime I see it.
Dunne did many comedies -- The Awful Truth, The Joy of Living, Theodora Goes Wild, Roberta (comic up to a point), Life with Father, etc. But I think her performance in the non-comic I Remember Mama is among her best -- so beautifully subtle. She plays that Norwegian American woman to perfection. If they ever remake that film (and they don't need to), Meryl Streep would be a natural.
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Helenbaby, are you from the other side of Lookout Mountain? I had a good friend from Memphis, and I think he told me that the hillbillies were on one side of it. He may have been kidding. I got in real trouble once for cleaning an iron skillet with a Brillo pad. ("Damn Yankee" is what I was called for doing that!) In any case, I've traveled across Tennessee from Memphis west, through Arkansas. Brings back good memories!
I went to a play called Hurt Village last night, really intense new play about a housing project in Memphis. http://www.signaturetheatre.org/tickets/production.aspx?pid=1940
Regarding Bette, I don't think Beyond the Forest was her best role. I think she does her best work in bits of Juarez, and in snatches of many other of her films.
Val, regarding brava/bravo, I live a few minutes walk from the Met Opera and go occasionally. The purists (of which I am not one) would shout "brava" for a woman.
Movie Titles-AKA
in Games and Trivia
Posted
Right, your thread Mud.