MissGoddess

*There's nothing natural about money. Love is natural.* *No, it's not money that I hate. I hate the valuing of money above love. I'm with Brick. So many of us have our priorities out of whack. We have convinced ourselves of some stupid things.* I never said anything about placing it above love...you hate any kind of valuing of money, above or below love. You think a man should father children if he hasn't a dime to provide for them, you think if he "loves" them yet lets them starve that's noble. I think that's hatred and self-love of the cruelest order. Such people should never have children, and it's shocking that they often produce the most and leave them to scrounge. Pathetic. I can see why Big Daddy had a hard time in life getting started! You give that squirrel Harry Fabian all kinds of breaks for putting money above all else but not Big Daddy or Maggie! Double Standard! *He wasn't until his crash. He was doing his own thing until the suicide. Now he's wallowing. And if he takes the inheritance, he'll always be living off his father, so I don't understand that logic. He should turn it all down and do his own thing by what you're saying.* I did say that...that if he can make a go on his own why didn't he. Oh, he didn't like his job. Poor him. However, there's no disgrace in accepting help from his parents so long as he doesn't let it make him into a Goober. *Goober does work hard, you know.* *Yes he does. He knows money. That's his love and ambition in life. We see how he values his kids. He's just like Big Daddy, not like his grandpa.* I agree with that, but it also sounds like he never even as a kid got much attention from his parents. They favored Brick from the start. It's not an excuse, but it reveals where the sins of the father lay. And lets face it, most railway bums leave their kids behind without ever laying eyes on them again, so the grandpa is a little romanticized here. *Brick is aimless, yes. He wasn't happy broadcasting games because it reminded him of his past glory, a glory he'll never be able to recapture again. Many athletes struggle with this. It's like beauty with many women.* Yet you won't grant Maggie the same insecurities after the horrors of her childhood. She's supposed to be untainted from them and content to ride a boxcar. Grotesque that people call THAT love. *Maggie is an in-law, so it's different. Big Daddy is Brick's father. There is a connection from birth with the two, just like Big Daddy and his father.* One can often hate no one so hard and judge so unfairly as a blood relation.

In other words, what I said was right, you do judge Maggie (as Brick does) for wanting what's right and natural. You really do hate money! I don't. I don't think it's right to love it but I don't think it's normal to hate it, either. Why don't you hate Brick for living off of his father's money without even working for it like Goober does? Goober does work hard, you know. Brick wouldn't know what that is. He just takes like a spoiled brat who doesn't think where the milk's coming from. I agree she kisses up to BD, but I also think she genuinely likes him. She even says so. I think maybe she and Big Mamma are the only two who accept him as he is without judgement. All the others either judge him as bad, like Brick does, or pretend to love him while secretly despisitng him and feeling superior. Maybe it's because of the way Elizabeth plays her, I just don't sense any malice in her toward anyone except maybe Sister Woman, and that's more reactive than anything. Brick's a pill.

*Oh.. and I love Angela too. (though I bet she plays a "detestable" gal in it.. ha. She is good at "detestable") * Actually she's quite adorable in *The Long Hot Summer*. No one is really hateful, just selfish here and there. It's not as unrelentingly intense as *CoaHTR* or as negative. It is talky, though, as most Williams' plays are. I like that, though.

In the Plain Text field, type this symbol, the less-than symbol here in red *>* and then a space just before the line of text you want quoted. It will show up as the white quote box.

No way, Ro! Don't think you're saying too much...there hasn't been much real discussion in a long time. I think the movie touches on family and a lot of themes that are so easy to talk about at length and it's always good when a movie also provokes mixed reactions...anything but boredom. Then you can count on interesting chat about it. P.S. This movie is always paired in my mind with another Williams/Newman film from the 50s, *The Long, Hot Summer*. I would say the latter film is less depressing though, ha. And it's focused more on the girl's character, played by Paul Newman's bride. TLHS has the distinction of being the one movie in which I find Newman attractive. I know! Throw "Bricks" at me for having such poor taste but he's just never excited me much, even though I can certainly see why most women think differently. He had beautiful eyes and I'm a sucker, usually, for blue-eyed men. Anyway, I really like him in TLHS and I love Orson Welles (playing a "Big Daddy" character) and Angela Lansbury...and sweet little Lee Remick! Oh dear, Anthony Franciosa is in it, too...oh well, at least he's playing the kind of BRAT he was born to play.

What a gyp! Well, maybe they will rotate which ones are free, which ones are fee, so it might be worthwhile to bookmark the site for the future. I'm glad you found *A Canterbury Tale* on YouTube. If you liked *I Know Where I'm Going* you may like this. It has the same feel, to me. I think it's a rather extraordinary little film and was taken quite by surprise by it.

I just found out they're not all viewable for free. Those with a little green *h+* are for huluPlus members that have to pay.

You said it, *Jackie*, she isn't going down without a fight. Like Brick said, Maggie's got life in her.

Hi, *Ro*. I will say I can sympathize with Brick in his depression and the way it can paralyze you...I have that tendency myself. That's why I admire and like to surround myself with Maggie/Big Daddy type personalities if I can...they bring out that side of me which is there and could totally overtake the "Brick" side if things were different. So I understand him...and his "clicks", even if I believe he needs to slough off that inertia, that depression, ASAP or it will kill him.

Howdy, Ro, If you can find *A Canterbury Tale* or *The River*, I recommend both of those. They are beautiful and poetic, in different ways. I think you would like the former movie very much. So would Jackie.

FYI, *Criterion* has made several of its titles available for (free) viewing at Hulu.com: http://www.hulu.com/criterion Among the films you can watch are some that aren't on DVD (yet).

Terrific insights, Jackie, Ro...Ro, what you said about the "Brick" wall...that was terrific! I never made that connection! I don't know if I can write this clearly, but I think Maggie wants Brick's birthright for mixed reasons, which makes her human. I don't judge her, it's his inheritance for goodness sake and there's just no sense in the way he throws it away with no consideration for the fact that he's married and what if there were to be children? He was just wasting his whole life away in the bottle and was fortunate to have a wife that loved him and had the kind of personality to push him. I believe Maggie would have married Brick had he been a poor man's son, but so long as he was a rich man's son, she saw a chance for them to have what he was entitled to and she was only human to want that, given she grew up with nothing. She can't fathom how anyone can possibly CHOOSE to be dirt poor. Only the idiotically spoiled can think that way, they don't know how ghastly it is. And she saw Brick wasn't going to go out and make any kind of life on his own for them, without Big Daddy. The point is he's making NO effort at all and this drives her crazy when he could have a pretty easy soft life if that's what he wants...to just be let alone. Rich people can be let alone a lot easier than poor and many of the wonderful words Williams gives to Maggie, speak to how foolish Brick is. He's just as mixed in his character's motives as Maggie, and no better than her, though MrGrimes you seem to infer that he is and that she's the selfish one. You see this in black-and-white terms and are forgetting your grey. You just never like it when a woman wants a secure life, even if she's wanting it for both of them. And she does want it for BOTH herself and Brick, she doesn't like seeing him waste himself away when he has a pretty easy opportunity to make something of himself, or start off somewhere else if that's what he prefers. The only option he's offering them is to drink himself to oblivion and to heck with her, his wife. Some noble character. Spare me! It's easy for someone like Brick, who's been terribly spoiled by the way---I think his mother probably doted on him WAY too much even as Big Daddy did---since Jack obviously resents his brother for being the favorite---it's easy for him to throw away what he's NEVER lived without. He needs a good kick in the rear and Maggie gives it to him. Good for her.

For me, *Roman Holiday* is one of those select, few films I consider just about perfect. Perfect cast, story, script, locations, music, emotion and direction. I cannot think of anything I'd change. I've been to Rome a few times and I was so disappointed when I first visited and there was no dancing on the Tiber. One of the most romantic things I have ever seen in a movie is the dance on the Tiber. Well, until it breaks up. I think couples used to have more fun. *Cat on a Hot Tin Roof* has for me wonderful performances by Elizabeth and Burl and the whole cast. Newman, not a favorite, is funny when he's sarcastic to Elizabeth but the funniest of all are the "no neck monsters". Never fails to get me. It's a "LeRoy" moment, a la *The Bad Seed* and his "stick bloodhounds". Ro, I know you know what I mean.

I'm just happy that both Frank and Natalie landed in the middle and not the bottom. Funny how you got to see them in two separate movies, but in the same batch, this time.

You have two #4's.

I thought so. Thank you, I'll look for your review...it was here in "Rambles"?

Jackie---were you the one who said you liked *Home Before Dark*? I just saw it and thought it incredibly good. In fact I just bought the DVD version since I failed to record it. I think I can identify with Charlotte a lot. Living in New England perhaps you can, too. I liked the locations they used, that was good. Now I'm going crazy (ha, like Charlotte) but what movie is the music from? I'm certain it's *Now, Voyager*, since it's about a woman (also named "Charlotte") just come home from a mental asylum and it's New England. Am I right? It's the first thing that struck me about the film.

Ha, it's true, she was even "chic" as an old lady. I always marvel at how tiny Natalie was...I think she was only 5 feet, yet she doesn't look tiny on screen, she looks tall. That made her perfect next to Peter!

Hi, Ro, I watched (most of) *Stage Fright*, too, and particularly enjoy la Dietrich in this. I was thinking how she makes a good match with Hitch, in that both use artifice to great effect. She is also very enigmatic, so you can't really tell if she's bad or not. Often, she acts worse than she really is, I guess that was part of her charm. Jane is very good and I love the supporting case. Alistair Sim is the best. When he leers hopefully at his wife when discussing sleeping arrangements it kills me!

Great! I can't take my eyes of "the suit"...I forget if it was Chanel or Valentino...but Natalie looks great in it and yellow's one of my favorite colors.

There he is! Love that he taught her to chew bubble gum.

I wish I got RTV.

I thought Falk was brilliant. Loved him in everything. He's even in one of my favorite "fluffies", *Penelope*, in which I ALWAYS want Natalie to dump her stuffy husband and go off with Peter.

*I like it when films from back then show women being just as capable; even though I know that by the end of the closing credits, she'll be giving up her capability for marriage, home and hearth.* In Medina's case, it's sort of the reverse of that in *Desperate Journey*. I hope Molo can set you up. It took three times for me to warm up to *The Big Steal* and stop thinking "corny rip-off...."