MissGoddess

Hello strangers! Count me as a fan of The Barbarian. I think it's Myrna's most erotic film. It seems inspired from the thrilling silents made by Rudolph Valentino. Capra's Bitter Tea of General Yen and Garbo's Wild Orchids fall into this interesting romantic film type. A good film to watch --- It's even better in the dark. Don't let the "real" world intrude to really enjoy it.

I'd probably have to say Alec, too! He's much to "by the book" which would pitch me out first thing!

Well, the one thing both places do have in common is my mortal enemy: la cucaracha. GRANDE cucarachas. :o I'll take gators any day over them! I had to rescue two more geckos from King Paws today. Lots of lizards are now wiggling around with stumpy tails, lol.

Is it me or were those guys wearing the same wigs and dresses Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon wore in Some Like it Hot? lol Jackie, I agree about Sullivan. I always hope he'll show a crack in his armor, but he almost never does. He seems to be a bit of a patsy in ASK NO QUESTIONS but I'm not believing that. He's too smart to be so naive. But what can he do against Arlene Dahl's wiles? Ahh...he finally wised up.

I thought I was the only one who always liked LADY WITHOUT A PASSPORT. Along with THE BRIBE, HIS KIND OF WOMAN, and TOUCH OF EVIL, they make for good, atmospheric south-of-the-border noirs.

You've definitely sold me on it, Ro! The bit parts and the love story sound right up my alley. Favorite boxing movies (in no particular order): Body and Soul Right Cross Cinderella Man The Set-Up The Champ Champion Golden Boy The Prizefighter and The Lady Somebody Up There Likes Me Requiem For A Heavyweight The Quiet Man (ha---one scene, anyway) The Harder They Fall 99 River Street I'm probably missing a few, there are so many. I've never seen Raging Bull. I'm just not into Bobby D except in the odd flick (The Last Tycoon, Analyze This). I even prefer Godfather II to the first.

99 River Street---that would be my favorite of the lot. It even has my swoony-eyed bad boy Brad Dexter in it! I just love John Payne in film noir and this is one of his best, along with Kansas City Confidential.

Hi Molo, Tension - I think this falls under that 'men can be such idiots' category of movies. If I remember correctly, mild-mannered and mousey Richard Basehart finds himself going to extremes for a dame. Where Danger Lives - Is this another one of those movies where Robert Mitchum is playing a doctor who pays a house-call on the wrong woman? He never did fare too well in white. I think HH femme Faith Domergue is the leading lady this time. The Woman on Pier 13 - One of "I Married a Commie!" propaganda movies, but elevated by Robert Ryan's (I'd wear red for him!) presence. No Questions Asked - I have lots of questions! I've never seen it. As for Too Late for Tears, I liked it. And I have only seen poor quality prints as well, though not out-of-sync. I'm sure TCM's will at least have decent audio.

Bon soir, Bronxette, How is your mother feeling now? Much, much better I hope. I have to find this episode! I hope YouTube/Hulu has "The Outer Limits". This and the one about the Bee-Girl sound fascinating. Speaking of bees, I remember also being traumatized by "The Killer Bees" TV movie---I didn't know who Gloria Swanson was but I kept asking my parents for weeks if there was an imminent bee-invasion. Sadly, the world is now suffering because there aren't enough bees out there. I think of you often when I see all the little geckos around my back garden. The boys of course are in ecstasy whenever they can pounce on one (I always rescue them from their clutching paws before it's too late). Meanwhile, back on the Riviera---have you seen Agnès Varda's documentary on the Cote d'Azur? It is the most charming video I have ever seen on our favorite place. It's on Criterion DVD but TCM aired it a few weeks ago and I was so enchanted. It's made in the 50s, brilliant color and poetic narration. You will die. Maybe it's on YouTube. Search for the director's name, Agnès Varda. Molo---check out the British version of "Thriller" (not the original, Karloff series) anthology series on YouTube---there are several episodes posted there and I think the English do scary better than anyone. More ambiance, less gore. But I have watched a lot of the 70s made-for-TV scary movies on YouTube. I grew up with them so it brings back memories of my own horror-show childhood, lol. Karen Black was the scream queen back then. That little African native in "Trilogy of Terror" goes down as one of the scariest things I have ever seen. Laffitte---an eye patch? Like Molo, I assumed you already sported one. You are in good company (Hollywood pirates Lang, Ford, Hathaway, de Toth, etc.).

I agree with Larry, your post was splendid, Ro. It may even make me watch Rocky the next time it comes on TV. I will have to surmount my long standing aversion to Stallone, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

My preferred weakness is PASSION, which I distinguish from LUST in that it is fueled by something more than just sexual chemistry and it can develop into love---the mind's imagination is always working feverishly to feed it and make it grow. JOHNNY and GILDA in Gilda. LUST is purely chemical/hormonal and disconnected entirely from the brain, lol. THE SWEDE and KITTY in The Killers.

I must confess I'm cheating on all of you! I've been chatting about films with a few friends here in Richmond and they have me watching old 70's and early 80's horror films at the moment. It's been weird. Molo! Oooh, that was my heyday for scary movies. I think I saw most of them from those two decades. I'm too chicken for that now. And I'm just as faithless; good heavens I even watched Sybil of all the ghastly things, instead of a nice, cheerful noir. It will take several showers and Doris Day movies to wipe away the effects!

HELLO there, little Hawaiian girl. Aloha! I am glad it wasn't just me.. ha. I think it is more of a "hint' though, like you said. It certainly is not overt. I just caught a glimpse now and then that made me get that impression. I don't know.. ha. Sometimes I get things caught in my head that I can't quite figure out the best way to express.. but that is how I saw it. If it isn't there it should be! Now it's been long enough that I would have to watch High Sierra again to remember everything, but I DO remember HB's character being portrayed much more sympathetically than Cody. But still I was able to find a measure of sympathy for him even though he was portrayed from a much more animalistic point of view. So that is a great point. When you've got an actor as good as Bogart or Cagney, you want to give him a character with some complexity. Somehow, it's hard for me to hate Cagney characters. You may hate all that a Cody Jarrett does or says, but like Jackie brilliantly pointed out, he's like the bullet that was fired from the chamber. He went in a straight line, very reactive personality----right where his good old Ma pointed him. That's why Myrna and Hank were able to manipulate him. That made him human. Ha!! Happy family indeed!! Oh me, oh my!! I have yet to get a chance to see TMA to compare yet, but ha.. MBE is hard to watch for certain. Sort of like staring at a train wreck. Sometimes you just HAVE to look away, but for whatever reason, I just kept looking back again, ha. (I guess I had to see how it was going to turn out) I didn't watch it today, though. To much "stuff" going on at the time. Plus. ha.. I don't think I could have taken that much "darkness" that early in the day. I might have gone down into the depths of despair before the middle of the afternoon. Better to see that one in the middle of the night. I don't like feeling bleak while the sun is shining. ha. I ended up turning away yet again before it finished for that very reason. I don't think I will ever get through it! I looked up all the various titles on the schedule for tomorrow and ODG is definitely the one that sounds like the best of the batch. In fact some of the other titles make me feel depressed just reading about them. ha. (Two in particular stand out as sounding REALLY depressing.. ha.. one about a guy who is murdered before the movie even starts but takes the entire length of the story to DIE. And the other.. some poor teenage bride sent to prison for a minor offense, has her baby taken away, and then after all the mistreatment and indoctrination from her stay in the "big house" she comes out on the other end as a hardened criminal. Ha! Yes when you're in Noir City you sure aren't in Kansas anymore! I agree with Frank that D.O.A. is quite the thing. Such a simple premise that just works and keeps me on the edge of my seat. I'm sure I enjoy that movie more than most do because every single time it's on, even though I know how it ends, I just have to watch. I think it was one of Neville Brand's first roles and does he ever play a sadistic swine. He really gives me the creeps in this. Edmund is great, as always, and carries the film well. Meanwhile. bring on Robert Ryan.. I am REALLY looking forward to it. I like a good "mad" now and then to get he blood flowing!! ha. He really gets to go A-to-Z on the emotional register in On Dangerous Ground, and I love watching him gradually learn to reign himself in.

Bonjour, M. Le Pirate! I'm trying to get my thoughts together for a few words on Act of Violence, just recently viewed. I wrote here a couple of weeks ago that a former viewing some years ago left me with some uneasy feeling about it that I can't remember now and was curious to see what it was this time around. Not a trace; in fact, there is a certain perfection about the movie, construction-wise as well as well as otherwise. This is well-known movie to all here but I'll have a few comments that struck me. For some reason I'm unable to dash them off trippingly off the keyboard, but I'll get to it. I do hope you'll share what you thought of it because I find it a very taught movie. The sound of Ryan's dragging step closing in on Heflin is pretty scary and unforgettable. Mary Astor gives a typically outstanding performance in a small role. The truth will out and Heflin's predicament makes for a gripping drama. I know I wouldn't want a Robert Ryan who's been nursing a grudge for years to come after me! I would make a good C.C. Baxter. Drunk by day, pirate by night! Not bad.

Hello, Ro I too have always suspected a whisper of understanding on Hank's part toward Cody, even if director Raoul Walsh only hints at it. After all, it was Walsh that gave us one of the most sympathetic of all gangster characters, Roy Earl (Bogart) in High Sierra. Jarrett's apocalyptic psychosis is a long way off from the elegiac and doomed "Mad Dog Earl", but then the whole nature of violence in America had taken a spectacularly senseless turn after the war. Maybe White Heat was Walsh's way of showing that. P.S. Your happy family saga, Mourning Becomes Electra, is on now---I have never yet been able to get through this movie. Did anyone ever reveal the ugly subterranean truths about families quite like O'Neal? The Magnificent Ambersons really do seem "magnificent" in comparison to this clan. His plays always depress me because they're so dark, almost too modern in their pessimism for me. I can see more plainly the Greek tragedy that bears Electra's name on this viewing. Love the Godzilla comparison, Bronxie! And I always sympathized with Godzilla, even more than for King Kong (I prefer lizards to apes or monkeys, lol). I just looked over tomorrow's schedule. Quite a few "B" noirs along with On Dangerous Ground, which I think is programmed too late (in my opinion it should get the prime slot at 8---it's one of the best films I've seen about "isolation" in all its forms). I think I've seen them all except, perhaps, Destination Murder, which I hope to catch.