maximillian1917

How about Jack Carson? Often the straight man or comic relief, his parts in such classics as MILDRED PIERCE and A STAR IS BORN highlighted that hostile edge that glinted beneath the surface of his acting. I always loved it when, commenting on his own sharp business practices in MILDRED PIERCE, he commented, under his breath, "I'm so smart, it oughta be illegal..." In A STAR IS BORN his studio publicist character's loathing for James Mason is evident in each of his queasy smiles as he attempts to corral the actor into toeing the studio line. Later, after a chance meeting at the race track, he takes a quick verbal stab at the down and almost out Mason, when Carson asks, almost in passing, if spouse of new star Vicki Lester hasn't left "the hurlyburly of the silver screen" behind. Carson's weaseliness makes me wonder what he would have been like if he'd lived long enough to play in a David Mamet piece, with the kind of ferocious dialogue he wrote for "Glengarry Glen Ross". Carson could also play very sympathetic, flawed men with human foibles too, as in "April Showers" (1948), "Roughly Speaking" (1945), and "The Hard Way"(1942).

Here's some suggestions of some apparently forgotten movies: 1. TUNES OF GLORY (1960): A great performance from Alec Guinness, unlike anything he'd ever done, as a blustering Scot lording over a regiment in the postwar period. John Mills is equally good as a psychologically fragile returnee from the war. 2. THE LOCKET (1946): Larraine Day is excellent as an unbalanced beauty whose quirks lead such diverse men as Brian Aherne, Gene Raymond and Robert Mitchum close to their doom. Don't miss the fascinating effects during the wedding sequence. 3. THE BIG COMBO (1955): Ugly as sin and twice as fascinating. The story of conflict among a police detective, (Cornel Wilde), his wife, (Jean Wallace, who was actually Mrs. Wilde), and a gangster (Richard Conte). One of the toughest film noirs ever, and probably one of the most influential on Tarantino and others.

Patricia Collinge in "The Little Foxes" (1941), as Birdie gives one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. Her broken, alcoholic character sees her family for what it is, tries to warn her young niece (Teresa Wright) about the reality of the situation, and, still longs for whatever tenderness she can find in her life. She breaks your heart as she winces at the sound of her husband's voice. This actress only made 7 movies in her career, but this one probably ought to be studied by any acting student. Interestingly, according to director William Wyler's bio by Jan Herman, Miss Collinge, who was used to the stage, only toned down her performance to its present exquisite form, AFTER Wyler insisted that she see her early rushes--when Collinge was apparently still acting to the back stalls of the theater, never realizing, until then, that for film, less is more.

Mrkgeegee, You're probably kidding, but just in case you are unaware of the fame of these two living American singing institutions, you may wish to check out a couple of their web shrines, as seen below. Both gentlemen came to fame in the fifties, and are still going strong. Jerry Vale is in the bel canto singing tradition of Italian-Americans, as exemplified by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Vic Damone and others. His repetoire includes love songs from the great composers such as Berlin & Porter, but he also sings in Italian. His singing has a distinctive warble to it. Last I heard he was still going strong in Atlantic City & Vegas: http://www.jerryvale.com/ Eddy Arnold is probably one of the first crossover country singers. Hailing from Tennessee he sang traditional, cowboy, "hillbilly", country and spirituals, as well as many hybrid songs. He also wrote several classic country songs, among them, "You Don't Know Me" (he's actually co-author on that one). His singing is characterized by a talent for yodeling, when needed. I believe Mr. Arnold is semi-retired now.: http://www.eddyarnold.com/ Enjoy, I hope! :-)

I'd love to see someone tackle an adaptation of J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", even though 95% of the story takes place in Holden Caufield's mind. Perhaps a Steven Spielberg or Robert Zemeckis might consider it--that is if the grouchy Salinger allowed it to be made into a movie. Any Guy de Maupassant story could be adapted and easily updated, since so many of them seem utterly contemporary, though they were written over a hundred years ago. "Sailor on Horseback", a biography of Jack London by Irving Stone would make a great picture too--though I believe a film about London was made once, the actual story is gritty and exciting--London was quite a character!

Some of the info in this article from the Sunday New York Times might be interesting to regular viewers of TCM. Please note-this article is being reproduced for informational purposes only and is not intended to violate any copyright laws.: April 20, 2003 The Living Room Revival House By STEVE VINEBERG TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES is a movie lover's paradise, an unending film festival. The revival house is dead in all but a handful of fortunate cities, and most neighborhood video stores stock a limited number of pictures made before the youngest clerks were born. Many titles have gone out of print on tape and have yet to be released on disc. But any aficionado whose cable company supplies TCM can see scores of movies every month, the vast majority of them more than 30 years old, including silents and foreign films. They're shown commercial-free, in the best available prints, and they're presented elegantly. Each one is annotated by the network's uncannily informed host, Robert Osborne; his introductions and afterwords, peppered with facts ? on-the-set anecdotes, placement within the career of a performer or filmmaker ? find distinction in even the least inspired studio release. There's rarely a month when TCM does not yield up some astonishing selection, some item that even those who, like me, spend their professional lives studying movies haven't been able to see. Perhaps it's King Vidor's silent "La Boh?me," starring Lillian Gish and John Gilbert, or the 1932 adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel "So Big," which marked one of the two times when the vivacious young Barbara Stanwyck was directed by William Wellman. The other, "Night Nurse," is a pre-Hays Code favorite, but "So Big," like other properties remade in the 1950's, was kept out of the packages the studios sold to television during that period so that the remakes wouldn't compete with the (almost always superior) originals. Other pictures in that category ? like the great 1936 "Show Boat" and the Astaire-Rogers musical "Roberta" ? have resurfaced long since, but "So Big" was a forgotten film until TCM screened it. When Erich von Stroheim's 1924 "Greed," famously truncated by Irving Thalberg, was restored to a four-hour approximation of its original glory, its excised scenes filled in with stills and intertitles, Turner Classic Movies showed it. And this month's programming includes an unprecedented coup: 24 comedies starring the silent comic Harold Lloyd, whom the film historian Kevin Brownlow has called "the third genius," adding him to a short list that includes Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Only half a dozen of Lloyd's comedies had been shown on television (some remained unseen since their original release), and the new prints TCM is using were struck off the original nitrate. (Nitrate stock was used in silent movies and early talkies; it's highly flammable and eventually disintegrates, which is why film preservationists always speak of the race against time to save our early movie heritage.) "Harold didn't like films to be shown on TV because of the way they were interrupted by commercials, and the fact that they weren't projected at the correct speed," said Suzanne Lloyd, his granddaughter and the sole trustee of his estate. Silent movies were typically shot at 16 frames a second, two-thirds slower than talkies, so if they are projected at our speed, the actors' movements are distorted. "Turner offered the perfect home for them, and a great showcase for him." The Atlanta-based Turner Classic Movies went on in April 1994, timed, according to executive vice-president and general manager Tom Karsch, to the hundredth anniversary of the first theatrical exhibition of film. The network's foundation is Ted Turner's library of 3300 movies, purchased from MGM, which originally served as the source of films for the Turner Broadcasting channels TBS and TNT. "But over time there was more of a ratings pressure on these stations," Mr. Karsch said, "and the networks were taking far less advantage of this great library. And we felt that one classic movie station wasn't enough." He was referring to the cable station American Movie Classics, owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, which still provides significant vintage pictures. But AMC lacks TCM's breadth: it's restricted to American releases and talking films, and it rarely offers any surprises for viewers who have had access to it for a year or two. From the outset, TCM has branched out beyond its MGM reserves. "We're always out there looking for orphan films," Mr. Karsch said. And the fact that features are supplemented by documentaries ? many are original, commissioned for TCM ? confirms the zeal with which the network provides film scholarship as well as entertainment. "We don't want to be the guys who dumb this stuff down," he said. The network's programming is imaginative, even playful. This month, for instance, includes series on directors under 30 and great American songwriters. On April 30, TCM will broadcast a mini-festival called "A Slap in the Face: The Best Slap Scenes of All Time." (They occur, apparently, in "Vivacious Lady," "Out of the Past," "In the Heat of the Night" and "Moonstruck.") "I love it when they do crazy, outlandish things," Mr. Osborne said. "The wonderful thing about Tom and Charlie Tabesh, the senior vice-president in charge of programming, is that they're open to suggestions from everybody; they're not territorial about their jobs. So anyone can come up with an idea ? like a tribute to composer Sammy Cahn on his birthday." Mr. Tabesh furnished some of his own favorites: Overweight Actors (on Thanksgiving), How to Murder Your Husband Night, and Evil Children on Christmas night. "We had one or two complaints about that one," he admitted. The June schedule will feature a tribute to Bollywood, and August will consist entirely of 24-hour tributes to 31 different stars. This is all in addition to regular features, like Silent Sunday Nights, TCM Imports, Syncopation Station (musicals) and Viewers' Requests. "We're driven by passion," Mr. Karsch said. "I run a network with 55 of the most passionate film lovers you'll ever find. They came to Atlanta specifically because they wanted to spend their lives working with these icons and these films." No viewer who got to see, to pick a recent example, the 1928 Lon Chaney picture "Laugh, Clown, Laugh" with a new score commissioned by the network is likely to challenge Mr. Karsch on that point. Mr. Osborne suggested the only downside to TCM's cornucopia approach. "Alfred Uhry, the author of `Driving Miss Daisy,' told me that if he never wrote another play it would be my fault," he said. "He goes to the country to write and watches TCM and that's it for the weekend." From Film Noir to Fitzgerald A FEW films from this month's Turner Classic Movies schedule that you're unlikely to see anywhere else (all times Eastern): THURSDAY, 6 A.M. The raucous, bristling pre-Code melodrama "Three on a Match" (1932), featuring early performances from Bette Davis and Joan Blondell. THURSDAY, NOON The exquisite Margaret Sullavan in "Three Comrades," perhaps the only movie F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on in his brief tenure in Hollywood in which the dialogue bears the mark of his style. NEXT SUNDAY, 9:30 P.M. Back to back, five two-reelers starring Harold Lloyd, all released between 1919 and 1921. APRIL 29, 4 P.M. "Act of Violence" (1949), Fred Zinneman's only film noir, an almost unbearably tense little movie with fine performances from Van Heflin, Robert Ryan and Mary Astor. Steve Vineberg is a professor of theater and film at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass

Too bad this obvious non-thinker didn't catch that misspelling of "Therfore" in the subject line.

Film has recorded such feats as a pirate's leap, an embattled cavalry charge, and a balletic dance, but there's one human activity that the most accomplished actors and actresses strive to suggest to an audience--THINKING. Could you name any classic actors or actresses who are especially adept at drawing us in and suggesting that they are wrapped in thought? Or, conversely, anyone who might want to leave the cogitating to others on the silver screen?

How about Mary Renault's books about ancient Greece, among the best are "A Bull From the Sea" and "The King Must Die"? The new digitization techniques could add crowd pleasing fantasy to the wonderfully told stories. I'd also suggest "The Daughter of Time" about a modernday hospitalized detective trying to solve the mystery of Richard III and the two royal boys lost in the Tower of London 5 centuries ago. It's very entertaining and speculative history!

There's another well done telephone scene by Montgomery Clift in "The Misfits"(1961). Clift has just gotten out of hospital after being bucked off a horse(or is it a bull?), and he's quite banged up, with a bandage round his skull and a broken nose. While Gable, Monroe, Ritter and Wallach wait for him in the car, Clift calls his mother from a phone booth, reassuring her, (and lying to her), telling her, (and himself), that everything's fine, and he's doing great on the rodeo circuit. The way he speaks to her and the things he says aren't significant or true, but there is something about it all that's so touching--especially when he tries to keep his Mom from crying on the other end of the line. The man was a damn good actor, spinning gold from corn silk.

I like Paul Newman and I admire his charitable work, but there's something restrained about many of his performances to me--even "The Hustler" and "The Verdict" seemed like self-concious acting to me. For some reason, I liked him much more in small, later movies, such as "Mr. & Mrs. Bridge", "Blaze", "Nobody's Fool", "Twilight" and the very well done, "Where the Money Is". In these later movies he's not trying to win awards or prove anything, and I think his acting is all the better for it. Hey, I hope they give him a month celebrating his movies. Maybe I'd change my mind about his earlier work.

Well, I don't think Streep's ever been cast as a sexy siren of any kind. Don't you think that she's more in the tradition of such actresses as Irene Dunne, Joan Fontaine & Olivia de Havilland? I hope that she'll always find some work, even in our often crass, shallow world--look at her this year, she's in "The Hours" , "Adaptation", the mini-series "Angels in America" and a current production being filmed called "Flora Plum". I'd say she ain't washed up yet! On another part of this subject, it just occurred to me that if Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas were young actors today, they'd probably find work--their looks and intensity might just be the ticket to Hollywood now as it was for them then. They'd probably love the idea of all the big stars having their own production companies too, since these guys were two actors who were among the first to try that in order to develop projects.

Yeah, Nick, like MGM didn't cannibalize their own scripts on a regular basis...it worked once, it might work twice, I guess!

There's an interesting telephone scene in "A Place in the Sun" when Montgomery Clift, who is embarassed, speaks to his evangelical worker mother (Ann Revere, around the time that her career was cut short by McCarthyism). His awkwardness, as he speaks to her from their relative's palatial mansion, is palpable and helps to underline his desire to bury the past and make something of himself in what he thinks is a better life.

How about Brendan Fraser? His square-jawed good looks could have led him to be a swashbuckling type in the golden era as well.

Intriguing topic... "Can-Can"--when Frank Sinatra sings "The Wrong Face" to Juliet Prowse, in preference to the loud, vulgar Shirley MacLaine--I just shake my head, and flip the remote. "Duel in the Sun"--when Jennifer Jones rejects Charles Bickford's offer of marriage in favor of that cuss, Lewt (as played by woefully miscast Gregory Peck)--I just cringe, and throw the remote. For what it's worth--I like Jerry Vale! Especially "Old Cape Cod".

Gkreisb, I agree about the talent of Barbara Stanwyck--but I don't think that she'd fit the physical cookie cutter of today. Her face was always interesting, but not, by today's lights, pretty. With her drive, maybe she'd be a character actress, like Lili Taylor. BTW, Meryl Streep has been mentioned too...see earlier posting on this thread. I think she might have made it in the classic era--in the ladylike roles, perhaps?

Gig Young was a cool choice for that movie, lolmsted. You're right, he was very sympathetic, (much more so than the Jeffrey Lynn character who was John Garfield's rival in the original version of that movie, "Four Daughters"). I just caught the Marion Davies-Dick Powell movie "Hearts Divided" on TCM and I'm pretty sure I'd have picked Charlie Ruggles who played the most urbane of her potential suitors over Mr. Powell any day of the week. Always got a kick out of Ruggles' croaky voice and double takes. He seemed less tiresome than Powell's young tenor. I prefer the Ray Charles cover of this tune too--I mentioned Cindy and Eddy 'cause they wrote the song, not because of the way Eddy Arnold sings it.

Like the classic Cindy Walker & Eddy Arnold song says, "You give your hand to me And then you say goodbye I watch you walk away beside the lucky guy Oh you will never know The one who loves you so Well you don't know me" Are there any guys or gals in classic movies who hardly ever get the romantic attention of the lead, but often pine for them or seem to be better choices than the sometimes conventional leading lady or man? Here's a spot to describe their charms...

How about a regular mystery feature--and I don't mean "Darkness after Dawn" which concentrates on film noir. I found the Deanna Durbin movie, "Lady on a Train"(1945) that was shown last week to be very entertaining. I think that this type of light mystery might be enjoyable for others, too. Perhaps it could include some of the classic early Hitchcock work, Rene Clair's mysteries, including "And Then There Were None", The Saint, and Boston **** movies, (the latter series might be available since Turner just announced that they have purchased the rights to a block of Columbia studios pictures.)

Vernados, your choices of Robert Walker & John Garfield are intriguing, though I think Tony Curtis was just too pretty for today. Kind of like Robert Taylor, whose youthful appearance was a bit much for some moviegoers even during the "gentler" times of the studio era. Off the top of my head, the most intriguing thing about this what-might-have-been, would be to see some of today's actors and actresses captured in a George Hurrell-type photograph. Some of the ones that I'd like to see given the studio treatment also happen to be actors who haven't, in my view, been given their due today. These might have had more roles in the old days-- Cary Elwes. He was born to play Errol Flynn's younger brother or perhaps a young leading man in one of those remakes of "Beau Geste" or as an escort for Deanna Durbin. Elizabeth McGovern. Her lush beauty and interesting intelligence is only hinted at in her contemporary roles--oh, she reminds me of a darker, saner sister of Frances Farmer. Jeff Daniels. I guess he's taken this trip before in "The Purple Rose of Cairo", but he'd have been terrific as a Van Johnson or Dennis Morgan type like lead. Ah, it's all in fun.

Come on, Paty!! Please give us the dish on your encounters with Orson Welles, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Crawford, Lucille Ball, etc. I don't think that I'm the only one who wants to hear these tales! Please?

After the breakfast dishes are done and the Sunday morning papers and the tube's talking heads have had their say, is there anything cozier than a "perfect" movie in the afternoon on a rainy Sunday? Forget the laundry, leave the bills for another day, listen for the raindrops on the window and curl up to view...what's your favorite Sunday kind of movie?

Some posts indicate that visitors would like to know Robert Osborne's take on the Oscar show. If you'd like to read his appreciation of the appearance by past Academy Award recipients, you might visit the link below: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hollywoodreporter/columnists/osborne/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1848241