MissGoddess

That's a great comparison to George Bailey, Ro. I think it's spot on. *The Long Gray Line* is Ford's *It's a Wonderful Life* meets *Goodbye, Mr Chips*.

Maybe you should see *The Grass is Greener* one of these days, to see Cary with Deborah in another comedy, and as an old married couple.

I've always thought Deborah Kerr and Irene Dunne had very similar "vibes", at least in terms of how they play off of Cary Grant. Arguably, they were the two women most in tune with his style of comedy.

KANSAS CITY SPOILER that's good! she is "like father, like daughter" in her smarts and reasoning. he just lost his way. i was so touched when he asked Payne to protect her from the truth at the end.

oh, how could i forget mitch. he's at the top. then ryan, the payne, then sterling. payne is great with fight scenes. like i said, he is very realistic at looking beat up.

*But John Payne is so doggone good in Kansas City Confidential. He's the kind of guy I love watching in film noir. I think he's severely underrated.* I quite agree. In fact, after Robert Ryan he's probably my favorite "noir" actor...and Sterling Hayden. He's very different to the other two...more like someone you'd be more likely to meet.

that union station is so beautiful, ro...I'm relieved to hear it wasn't razed for a strip mall. so what did you think of collen gray's character and her dad? I love preston foster in this, and he's someone i don't normally take much notice of.

hi, ro, marty can seem almost clownish to some i suppose, but i find him a bittersweet figure. trying to be what he's not, or trying to scramble against circumstances. the pull of family and duty are too strong for him to resist.

so how do you think *love affair* compares with an affair to remember?

*Yeah, but she prevented him from doing quite a few things, too! Marty really does defer.* he does, but he also does with his pa and his C.O. and everyone, really, don't you think.

*Wow! That's superb! I certainly didn't think of that. I thought you were gonna say he can never get his way because of Mary. Which would be true!* I think it started to "go off" for Martin long before Mary even came on the scene. I loved his reaction when he first arrives. It's actually the funniest moment in the whole movie to me. That West Point is being compared to an insane asylum tickles me to no end. But what's interesting, is that in some rather serious, sad way, West Point is a prison and drives Marty mad at times. It seems to him that the parade of life is continually passing him by. But like a certain TV character once pointed out, it's an "institution" that either is a prison keeping you from all you want, or it's a haven that holds in all that's dear. This moment very subtly sets up all that's ahead. Marty is ultimately an individualist, and how a "maverick" fits into a rigid community is a favorite theme of Ford. This time the "hero" is played gently for humor, rather than pure tragedy. Edited by: MissGoddess on Jul 22, 2011 11:06 PM

You always make me smile when I see you list the Ford film as the one I like the least. Because you've hated so many of them, especially the funnier ones. It's a really good film. It's very warm. It is. It's full of love and appreciation for a "little man", the least one of an institution that people honored for all it's illustrious alumni...so Ford chose the obscure Martin Maher (after the publication of Marty's autobiography that is) to celebrate, rather than any of the famous men. I do like that. It's so him. *Oh, Mary O'Donnell! And Pa Maher is a riot.* It's all about the characters, about the family, and this movie has the added human richness of a family within a larger "family". My favorite "theme" in the movie? How Marty never gets his way not even once in his life...and yet he's a "rich" man for it. He never can smoke his pipe, choose his career, choose his country (he wants to return to Ireland and run a pub), choose his service (he wants to go off to war), or almost anything. He gets the woman of his choice but then the Kohlers seemed to know she was the one for him even before he did and engineered their whole courtship. Saddest of all, he loses his own son and isn't allowed to wallow in his grief at the bar. At every turn he's thwarted, and yet it's never out of anything but affection. He's a "loser" in only his own eyes. Everyone, including Ward Bond (love his character) wants what's best for him and they want him near, too.

i never would have believed you could tolerate *the long gray line* let alone put it so highly. it's even taken me several vieiwings to feel affectionate toward it.

*My own ranking:* 1. The Divorce of Lady X 2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 3. Hatari! 4. Road House 5. Death of a Scoundrel 6. Love Affair 7. Doubting Thomas 8. The Sniper 9. The Long Gray Line 10. Western Union 11. The Swan 12. Man of the World 13. Waltzes from Vienna 14. The Murderous Corpse (Fantomas III) 15. Wedding Present

*You are off 11 places with one film. So for you to be that far off, it has to be 15 minus 4 or 14 minus 3 or 13 minus 2 or 12 minus 1. So, in other words, your #15 is really #4 or your #4 is really #15. Get it?* ** oh, no i dont get it at all...you can't convince me that you like Waltzes from Vienna 11 levels less than The Long Gray Line...so i stand by original ranking of those two. 6. Death of a Scoundrel 7. The Divorce of Lady X 9. Doubting Thomas 14. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 13. Hatari! 15. The Long Gray Line 5. Love Affair 12. Man of the World 3. The Murderous Corpse (Fantomas III) 8. Road House 2. The Sniper 11. The Swan 4. Waltzes from Vienna 10. Wedding Present 1. Western Union {font}

you'll have to tell us how *Iove affair *compared with your beloved an affair to remember that has provoked some interesting discussions around here and other forums...

No, it can only be one of these eight titles that is way off: Western Union is 12 The Sniper is 13 The Murderous Corpse is 14 Waltzes of Vienna is 15 The Long Gray Line is 4 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is 3 Hatari! is 2 Man of the World is 1 I don't understand. are those numbers the number of rankings I'm off or are those YOUR rankings for those films?

so you either hated something more than i thought, or liked something more than i thought. was it the swan?

i'm sure it's the bottom ones i got right.

{font:arial, helvetica, sans-serif} 6. Death of a Scoundrel7. The Divorce of Lady X 9. Doubting Thomas 14. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 13. Hatari! 15. The Long Gray Line 5. Love Affair 12. Man of the World 3. The Murderous Corpse (Fantomas III) 8. Road House 2. The Sniper 11. The Swan 4. Waltzes from Vienna 10. Wedding Present 1. Western Union {font}

Bronxie, there's a scrollbar on your post! And you wrote one line, lol. I never saw that before.

Is *luxury liner* the one with george brent? i actually enjoyed that one, and i'm not normally a fan of musicals.

I'm so glad *The Proud Rebel* please you, Jackie! I keep hoping TCM will air it because it deserves to have more fans. David and that dog are hard to resist. Just looking at them breaks my heart. I think David at that age had the same appealing vulnerability I sometimes see in his father.

I love RJ and even think he'd be great filling in for RO all the time.

That's right! He played Claire Trevor's brother, didn't he? Was it the only time John Wayne and Roy Rogers shared the screen? Marjorie Main is also excellent and very sympathetic as Cantrell's mother. And my sweet J. Farrell Mac is in it, too.