Swithin

I agree with you totally. Although I generally like Maltin, TCM is different. The schedule does not need ratings from any critic.

They do talk about the baby. Toward the end, Tom Joad says Rose of Sharon is getting prettier every day. Ma Joad says that a girl with a baby's always prettier. Or something like that. I think the assumption is that the baby will be born in California, just as Grandma died before they got there -- out with the old, in with the new. But in the book, I think the baby dies. In any case, I think The Grapes of Wrath is one of those instances where the movie is better than the book. I'll take Ford over Steinbeck any day!

Speaking of equine, SJP (whom I like), reminds me of the great British actress Fiona Shaw. Shaw is monumental on stage -- but too "equine" in films. I love the film Mountains of the Moon, but in all that Victorian drag, with her horsy face, Shaw seems ridiculous. I've seen SJP on stage. She may not be in a class of a great classical actress like Shaw, but she's very good. And I like SJP because she isn't perfect. Too many of today's glamour girls are meant to look like people we see every day (as opposed to the leading ladies of the classic films). SJP at least is a bit of a welcome throwback. Maybe sort of a Jean Arthur character.

1959 was a very good year. You have two of my favorite films on your list: Black Orpheus and Journey to the Center of the Earth; and you have my least favorite Hitchcock film. I don't know what I'd pick for the best year for film scores -- my favorite score of all time is Korngold's score for Anthony Adverse (1936). My favorite use of music of all types -- background, song, plot integration -- in a Hitchcock film is The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). My favorite score for an epic film is the Bernard Herrman/Alfred Newman score for The Egyptian (1954). But to pick one year? Too hard, without doing alot of research!

At the end of the courtroom scene in *The Young Philadelphians*, Richard Deacon is on the witness stand. He gets thirsty and drinks the glass of "water" in front of him, but it's gin. He chokes and shouts "you tricked me, it's gin..." The fact that he assumed it was water but it was gin clinches the case for Newman's defense of Robert Vaughn. The plot hole is, what if Deacon didn't get thirsty?

I went to see it as a young teen, when it came out, because I was fascinated by the life and work of Alice B. Toklas and Gertude Stein. I was disappointed, it used Ms. Toklas's name merely in reference to her infamous brownie recipe. To get the taste of the film out of your mouth, read What Is Remembered by Alice B. Toklas; or The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein. Toklas and Stein were two Twentieth-Century greats. I'm waiting for a film about their life.

Well, let's hope that next year, when she turns 90, there is a really super multi-day celebration. I've been looking at *The Pajama Game* recently -- what a great musical. The color is gorgeous. I guess my favorite Doris Day film is *The Man Who Knew Too Much*, partly because of her; partly because it's such an effing work of art!

Gene and June Lockhart: A Christmas Carol; Forever and a Day (where is that film); a few tv programs together.

I hope we can exempt Beverly Garland, for her outstanding performance in Curucu, Beast of the Amazon and so many other great films of that marvelous ilk; as well as her tv work, which includes Cookie LaRue on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Please leave her out of this!

Dangerous Corner is based on a play of the same name by J.B. Priestley. I saw it on stage once, not having heard of it before. It was riveting! I'm looking forward to the film, which I have never seen. The prolific Priestley also wrote the occasional screenplay, e.g. Last Holiday with Alec Guinness. And The Old Dark House is based on a Priestley novel.

I like Maltin well enough, I just don't think TCM needs his ratings alongside the schedule. Apart from the fact that his "stars" are not necessary there, the classic films are often judged by different standards anyway.

I forgot Bing Crosby. I guess the only two "classic era" actors who really irritate me are Bing Crosby and Loretta Young.

I'm a Roz Russell fan, too. She played serious roles as well as comedy -- Sister Kenny, Night Must Fall, The Citadel, Roughly Speaking, etc. But Auntie Mame was her triumph, she'll always own that character. And I have to confess, she's my favorite Mama Rose. Listen to her on the original Broadway cast album of Wonderful Town, she's terrific. She may not have had a traditional singing voice, but she was perfect for that musical, for which she won a Best Actress Tony Award.

I think that's kind of a British thing to some extent, the lack of a rush to the plastic surgeon. I should not have used the word "alas" in my earlier post. Eileen Atkins actually told me she thought she (Eileen) got so many jobs because she would never have her face lifted!

It is a wonderful film, it has a very special quality -- kind of a horror film with a great deal of heart and so many wonderful performances. I particularly like Mary Astor, though it's not right to single anyone out in this film.

I worked with Hayley Mills some years ago -- around 2002, I think it was. She was lovely, petite, attractive, but alas -- she has wattles! She knows it, talks about it, doesn't want to do anything about it. An American actress would rush to plastic surgery.

Probably not your cup of tea -- it was a satire. It featured William Holden's last performance.

Remember when Julie Andrews let a breast slip in *S.O.B*, as a sort of segue away from all that sweetness?

I particularly like Shelley Winters in *South Sea Sinner*, a 1950 rarity in which she plays a sort of Sadie Thompson-type character in the South Seas. She's hounded by Luther Adler. She sings -- Liberace is her accompanist. One for TCM to show!

Of course we all have our pet irritants -- mine is Loretta Young -- but when you see some of these people's lists, you think -- why are they here?

Wow, that surprises me, I think James Mason is a great actor and enhances every movie he's in. He's in my favorite adventure -- Journey to the Center of the Earth. Edward Albee has said he was promised James Mason and Bette Davis for the film of Virginia Woolf, but he got stuck with Burton/Taylor, whom he liked in the end. He really wanted Mason/Davis, but it was too early in his career for him to have any clout.

He was indeed a delight to watch, a very good and engaging actor. I just watched Lloyd's of London again -- he plays the boy who grows up to be Tyrone Power. He gives an excellent performance in a wonderful film. I also like him as David Balfour in Kidnapped, a movie I would like to see again. But he was great in all his films. And I do not think you could call those "sissy" roles!

Alice Pearce did alot of work on Broadway. She was in the original production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the great show that was butchered by Hollywood to make the 1953 film.

Neither of those lovely Swedish ladies irritate me, but I find Bergman to be totally different from Garbo. Not comparable at all. I tend to compare Garbo to Dietrich, and although I like Garbo, I LOVE Dietrich. I believe Garbo had more formal training, but somehow I think Dietrich is just transcendant. For me, there is nothing on screen equal in radiance to some of Dietrich's scenes, particularly in the Von Sternberg movies. Bergman, on the other hand, is from a slightly later period and made different kinds of films; a much more rounded character (literally AND figuratively); less a symbolic icon.

Just received a DVD collection of seven Gracie Fields UK films, including *Sally in Our Alley*. Haven't seen these for years (some never), probably not since MOMA did a comprehensive British series a long while back. Sally in Our Alley (1931) was directed by Maurice Elvey and scripted by Miles Malleson and Alma Reville! Gracie's romantic interest was Ian Hunter. It's a warm, moving film, evocative of its period, and featuring Gracie's theme song. Other films on the DVD set are Love, Life, and Laughter; Sing as We Go; Look Up and Laugh; Queen of Hearts; The Show Goes On; and Looking on the Bright Side. There are so many British films that are rarely seen in the U.S. It would be nice if TCM presented a selection.