Swithin

House of Rothschild The Man in Half-Moon Street Brit films -- the early Gracie Fields film (1930s), like Sally in Our Alley Brit films -- 1940s films with Patricia Roc, Margaret Lockwood, et. al.

My favorite Herrmann scores are Journey to the Center of the Earth, and The Egyptian, which he co-scored with Alfred Newman.

Hitch used music scores to great advantage, but the folding of music/song into the plot was even more significant. For example, the shooting during a concert in the Albert Hall in both versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much; the use of the song Que Sera Sera at the end of the film (second version); the use of a tune as secret code in The Lady Vanishes; the band music at the end of Young and Innocent, giving away the culprit; many other examples.

Mourning Becomes Electra was a trilogy. If you look at the script for the play, you'll see that the three parts are called Homecoming; The Hunted; and The Haunted. They must have used those titles on screen. One of O'Neill's ideas was to present each play on a separate evening, but he decided to do it all in one long evening, instead.

I first saw Ralph Fienne as Cobweb, in A Midsummer Night's Dream in Regents Park, London, in the early-mide 1980s. The following year he played Demetrius in that play, and also Romeo. He definitely seemed to be from an earlier period of British acting -- that's part of his charm, I think.

George Grizzard as Senator Van Ackerman in Advise and Consent.

I think Ralph Fiennes has that classic quality -- he could do the Ronald Colman persona. I wish Fiennes had been old enough to do Out of Africa -- he'd have been great in the part Redford was not right for. A film I liked about 15 years ago was The Sheltering Sky. It would have been better if Debra Winger and John Malkovich were NOT in it. They just couldn't bring off that classic-type story -- it was like 90s-type people in a 30s movie. .

THE GREEN MAN is one of my Sim favorites. And I like his version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

I would love to see THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, haven't seen it in years. Love those Brit actors -- Heather Angel, Valerie Hobson, Claude Rains, Zeffie Tilbury, Ethel Griffies, and also Douglass Montgomery. And how about two Helen Walker films -- THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET -- there were many versions of that eternal life thriller, but I think the Nils Asther/Helen Walker version is the best. And also MURDER, HE SAYS -- One of the funniest films ever made. I could go for some St. Trinians, and also a good dose of CARRY ON films. "ooooh Matron...."

I've just watched "Conquerer Worm" ("Witchfinder General"), which I taped when it was on TCM a month or so ago. It never really bothered me that the original British title was changed, and that Poe's poem was added to the beginning and end, recited by Vincent Price, because I think the message of that poem is relevant to the spirit of this most depressing of movies (the total victory of evil -- the corruption of the innocent). But what surprised me is that the American version ("Conquerer Worm") was re-scored. Paul Ferris' haunting music is there, to some extent, but totally (and unsuitably) re-arranged by a man named Kendall Schmidt. Ferris' name is not on the credits of the U.S. version. Why did they do this? Ferris' score is one of the great movie scores, and totally captures the various moods of this great and strange film.

My fave is from THE ROARING TWENTIES. Cagney dying in the arms of Gladys George, on the church steps. When the cop asks Gladys "What was his racket," she replies, "He used to be a big shot." The camera pulls back to a very wide shot, amid strains of "Melancholy Baby.

My fave is from THE ROARING TWENTIES. Cagney dying in the arms of Gladys George, on the church steps. When the cop asks Gladys "What was his racket," she replies, "He used to be a big shot." The camera pulls back to a very wide shot, amid are strains of "Melancholy Baby.

Do you New Yorkers remember Channel 13, before it was PBS? I think it would have been early '60s. It featured regular screenings of horror movies on a show called "Shock-O-Rama." Two of the really scary films were "The Fall of the House of Usher," (not the Vincent Price, but a terrifying 1949 British film that gave me nightmares, particulary of a hag guarding a head with a knife); and "The Creeper," with Eduardo Ciannelli as a man who could make his hand turn into a cat's paw --this also gave me nightmares as a child.

I loved the Million Dollar Movie. When I was a small boy, they'd screen the same movie over and over on Saturdays. I remember a few of the films they showed in those days -- Follow the Fleet; Navy Blues; and The Spiral Staircase. Also a western with, I think, Randolph Scott -- don't remember which one, just that the theme song was "A Stranger in Town...," or something like that.

I think PETER IBBETSON is one of the great surrealistic films. I'm glad it has been released on DVD as part of the Gary Cooper collection, since it shows it's available, but I'm waiting for it to come out solo.

My favorite New Year's Eve scene is in the Mae West film, "Every Day's a Holiday." It opens on New Year's Eve of 1899/1900. Charles Winninger, Charles Butterworth, Edmund Lowe, and Louis Armstrong, and Lloyd Nolan are also in the cast. It's got lots of early New York color and a big election campaign. Mae West plays Peaches O'Dea, and later, masquerades as Mlle. Fifi. The Mlle. Fifi disguise and song are reprised by Carmen Miranda in the Groucho Marx film "Copacabana" a decade later. "Every Day's a Holiday" is a West rarity which I'd like to see again.

I'd like to see "House of Rothschild," a great film with George Arliss, Helen Westley, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, and Robert Young. It hasn't been on in years.

I mentioned that I love "The Old Fashioned Way," particularly for Jan Duggan. Another Fields film I'm mad about is "Million Dollar Legs." I particularly like Lyda Roberti ("The Hottest Thing in Old Klopstockia") and the totally insane humor. Dickie Moore, the child star who was in the film, lives across the street from me.

I'm glad they're showing "Going Places," I've never seen it. How about "Melody for Two," for which Warren wrote "September in the Rain," sung most memorably by James Melton. Is that ever shown? Remember the Warner Brothers records issued about twenty years ago, they included several Warren songs, sung by the people who introduced them in the films.

Thank you, Mysterious Mose. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a Fields fan -- I don't want those other films, just The Old Fashioned Way. Hope they release it solo at some point.

I love the W.C. Fields film "The Old-Fashioned Way," particularly for Jan Duggan's hilarious (and endless) rendition of "Gathering Up the Shells at the Seashore," and for the performance of "The Drunkard." The film appears not to be on DVD or video. Does anyone have any information about where I can get a copy or whether there are plans to release it?

I think Wyler is underrated. If you look at one of his greatest films -- "Mrs. Miniver" -- you can see in many subtle and creative shots how the insularity of the peaceful English village is depicted, and how it is shattered by the war. The flower show segment is a model of great directing -- study the shot of the singers -- one of them scowls right into the camera as if to shout "intruder!" Check out that film for the beauty of each composition as well as for the great performances. I think Wyler has more in common with Ford than one would guess, and it shows, in "Mrs. Miniver," which deals with Fordian subject matter -- a community and family under siege. And, even under the thumb of Goldwyn, Wyler's "Wuthering Heights" remains the greatest film of 1939, better than that long film about the Old South...

One of the great mad scientist lines is uttered by Bela Lugosi in "Devil Bat." He wants some guy to try his new after shave lotion, which will attract the giant bat which will then kill him. Bela says to the guy, "Rub some on the tender part of your neck."

I was looking forward to the mad science series but am disappointed that "The Mad Doctor of Market Street" (1942) starring Lionel Atwill is not being shown.

Wow, sorry I missed them somehow. Still, what actor of that caliber has achieved the age of 90? This month would have been a good time to have a third tribute!