Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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On Svengoolie tomorrow, June 5, 2021:
Cult of the Cobra is one of those horror films in which naughty westerners behave badly in an exotic locale and are punished by a force that hunts them down back home, in this case, a woman who turns into a cobra.Another example of this sort of film is The Reptile (1966), a film which I like very much, about an Englishman who offends a Malayan cult, which then takes revenge on his daughter, who turns into a snake. And of course there are other horror films about women who turn into snakes, an interesting one being The Snake Woman; and an amusing one being The Lair of the White Worm. In The Snake Woman, a doctor injects his pregnant wife with snake venom, thinking it might cure her madness. Instead, it turns their child (played by Susan Travers) into a cobra. The Snake Woman features a scene-stealing character played by Elsie Wagstaff, as a sort of old witch (of the best type) who wants to kill the baby before it's too late. (Marne Maitland as a Malay servant in rural England does his share of scene-stealing in The Reptile.)The Lair of the White Worm is of course one of Hugh Grant's (and Ken Russell's) best films, an enjoyable combination of horror and comedy in the English countryside.
Faith Domergue and the boys in Cult of the Cobra
Jacqueline Pearce in The Reptile
The lovely Amanda Donohoe in The Lair of the White Worm
Elsie Wagstaff in The Snake Woman-
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Moontide (1942)
Next: Stirring a drink
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Margaret Wycherly was in Random Harvest with Elisabeth Risdon.
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3 hours ago, SansFin said:
I thank you very much for that recommendation! I have just now watched it. I found several elements in it to be quite surprising. It is a much more developed movie than many of its era. I loved Ann Sothern!
So many films on your list look interesting, but the only one I've seen is Trade Winds as well. Tay Garnett specialized in films that take place on shipboard in exotic locales: One Way Passage, Seven Sinners, Trade Winds, Slave Ship, China Seas, Destination Unknown, I'd like to see a festival of them.
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The White Sheik (1952)
Next: Mysterious hotel
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16 minutes ago, Fausterlitz said:
I assume you're referring to Billie Burke and Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
Burke's first film role was as Peggy (1916) (although she had appeared as herself in Our Mutual Girl two years earlier). Her last film appearance was as herself in Pepe (1960). The "classic early talkie" is Dinner at Eight (1933). She was Oscar-nominated as Best Supporting Actress for Merrily We Live (1938). Of course she is also fondly remembered as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
Ziegfeld and Burke were played by William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), hence the "oblique" reference to The Thin Man (although Burke was reportedly upset that the studio considered her too old to play herself; she was in her early 50s at the time).
Ziegfeld's name is mentioned in the Sondheim song "Broadway Baby":
"Working for a nice man
like a Ziegfeld or a Weismann"
I'm not sure exactly which "distinctive feature" you're looking for. The fact that both of them were played in a film biography only a few years after his death is itself fairly unusual, although certainly not unique (unless you mean the fact that such a film won a Best Picture Oscar). The fact that she returned to film acting a decade after her silent career had ended, primarily as a means of paying off his enormous financial debts (he had lost a fortune in the 1929 stock market crash) is perhaps also distinctive.
If neither of those is what you're alluding to, perhaps another tiny clue?
Well done, Fausterlitz! The distinctive feature I was referring to, as you surmised, was that their lives were the subject of an Oscar-winning best picture. Can that be said of any of our other couples here? I might also have thrown in a clue referencing a Barbra Streisand film, but, thanks to your sleuthing, I didn't need to go that far.
You get lots of extra credit for quoting the line from "Broadway Baby!"
And the thread is yours.
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On 6/1/2021 at 1:31 PM, Swithin said:
This famous couple consisted of an Academy Award-nominated wife and a famous producer husband. I think that, of all the couples ever mentioned in this thread, this husband and wife have a particular and distinctive feature, related to the movies.
Both American born, the wife enjoyed a more than 40-year career in films. In her first film, she played the title character; in her last film, she played herself.
Who are they? What is the distinctive feature to which I refer?
9 hours ago, Swithin said:The Thin Man movies offer a kind of oblique clue to the couple.
Although wife had a rich and varied career, beginning in silent films, she is probably best known for playing upper class (somewhat ditsy) women, having played one with great success in a classic early talkie.
Husband's name is mentioned in a Sondheim song.
When you name the couple, please provide the additional information that I alluded to in the hints.
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Midnight Express (1978)
Five Miles to Midnight (1962)
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20 hours ago, Swithin said:
This famous couple consisted of an Academy Award-nominated wife and a famous producer husband. I think that, of all the couples ever mentioned in this thread, this husband and wife have a particular and distinctive feature, related to the movies.
Both American born, the wife enjoyed a more than 40-year career in films. In her first film, she played the title character; in her last film, she played herself.
Who are they? What is the distinctive feature to which I refer?
The Thin Man movies offer a kind of oblique clue to the couple.
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"Wot Cher! Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road" -- Shirley Temple, Arthur Treacher in The Little Princess (1939)
Next: Song that asks for something
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One of the greatest scenes in any movie EVER! The "Tammy" (sung by Debbie) sequence in The Long Day Closes (1992).
Next: Sung by Mae West but not from She Done Him Wrong or I'm No Angel.
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This famous couple consisted of an Academy Award-nominated wife and a famous producer husband. I think that, of all the couples ever mentioned in this thread, this husband and wife have a particular and distinctive feature, related to the movies.
Both American born, the wife enjoyed a more than 40-year career in films. In her first film, she played the title character; in her last film, she played herself.
Who are they? What is the distinctive feature to which I refer?
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Could this be David Lean (Great Expectations, A Passage to India) and Ann Todd (The Seventh Veil, Madeleine) ? (It could also be David Lean and Kay Walsh, but Todd seems to have done more American television, as befits the clue.
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12 minutes ago, DougieB said:
The Egyptian is definitely a movie Fathom Events should be bringing back to theaters. I haven't attended any of their events because there's no showing that isn't a 2-3 hour drive, but I'd find a way to get to see this one on a big screen.
I was taken to see The Egyptian when I was a small child. For years, I would occasionally dream about a man with an eye patch who removes the patch, takes a ruby out of his eye socket, to buy passage on a ship for himself and a child. Until I saw The Egyptian again, decades later, I didn't remember that my dream scene was from that great film. I also remembered the beautiful shades of blue in that film, without remembering which film it was.
My favorite epic! The last time I saw it, it was on the Fox film channel.
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8 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
is that anne baxter as nefretiri or gene tierney from the egyptian?
It's Gene in The Egyptian. And here's someone even more beautiful, from that film:
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Black Orpheus (1959) "He made the sun rise!"
The Sun Comes Up (1949)
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"If You Knew" -- sung by Fabian in North to Alaska (1960)
Next: Another song played on a squeezebox
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9 hours ago, HoldenIsHere said:
I first saw GUMMO about 10 years ago and enjoyed it.
Someone on these message boards started a thread about GUMMO a few years ago and I think I might have been the only contributor to it besides the thread's creator,
Just looked back on that thread (which I started), and yes, you were the only other poster. In the past, whenever I posted about Gummo, Lawrence would groan, but he doesn't come around much any more.
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23 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
...by the way, I've heard Werner Herzog interviewed, and he sounds like an exceptionally intelligent and nice man .
Werner Herzog is a fan of Harmony Korine and the film Gummo. Herzog particularly loved the bacon taped to the wall above the bathtub:
Herzog: "What I like about Gummo are the details that one might not notice at first. There's the scene where the kid in the bathtub drops his chocolate bar into the dirty water and just behind him there's a piece of fried bacon stuck to the wall with Scotch tape. This is the entertainment of the future."
https://rohandrape.net/ut/rttcc-text/Herzog1999a.pdf
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34 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
ps- not that this is on topic or that anyone asked, but THOMAS HARDY is one of my FAVORITE FAVORITE AUTHORS, and if anyone is looking for some good summer reading, I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND two lesser known works of his that are EXQUISITE: THE WOODLANDERS and THE WELL-BELOVED.
FROM time to time I have toyed with the notion of adapting both into scripts (even wrote a good chunk of one before I scrapped the idea)
I love The Woodlanders. A beautiful but heartbreaking book. There has been a film version, which I've seen, but I don't remember much about it. The book remains in my mind, particularly the tragic characters of Giles Winterbourne and Marty South.
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Smith, Captain -- Colin Farrell in The New World (2005)
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Louise Beavers was in She Done Him Wrong with Florence Wix.
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1 hour ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
If I recall correctly Martin Kosleck was in a Get Smart episode where he spoofs the character he plays in this film.
Could be. (I wasn't a regular Get Smart watcher.) Kosleck also played a sculptor in another horror film: House of Horrors (1946).
Top Ten Roddy McDowall Favorites
in General Discussions
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Roddy's brilliant in Molly and Me (1945) with Monty Woolley and Gracie Fields.