MissGoddess
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Posts posted by MissGoddess
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> We're gonna get some light rain the next two days, but that shouldn't do any damage. It's going to end up being the wettest year in our area's history. We had about 15 inches of rain in August and we've already received 15 inches of rain this month.
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Amazing. 30 inches.
> QUALITY STREET SPOILED
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> I wasn't sure if he was onto her from the start or not. But he was. He tells her how she would be hurting "the right man" with her "false face." Very similar to *Alice Adams*. He's telling her he loves her just as she is and that he remembers how she was and that's still her with him.
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So he just goes along with her little game? Why did she think she needed to act differently then?
> I never caught the *Now, Voyager* correlation. That's really good!
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The music is what tipped me off, first. Then of course, her coming out of a sanitorium, her name, the female domination, the stuffy New England setting. It's an interesting reworking of *Now, Voyager* and a good example of how to do a "remake". I'd like to read the book (Home Before Dark) to see if it, too, was a rip-off of Prouty's novel.
> I wanted some meat and potatoes. Hinds is good, but he's mostly "one note." Karloff was really good playing the much older man. He was far and away above the material. He's such a great actor.
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I didn't mind that it was on the lighter side. I agree about Boris, he was really a fine actor whose career took a different turn. He could have done the classics, exclusively.
> I found the love story to be very intrusive and very silly. Pandering. I didn't like "The Kid" (Alan Baxter).
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They were kind of annoying.
> She looked great! I'm a fan of Fredric March and I also loved Ann Sothern in the pic.
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I thought March was well cast as the smug type and I love Ann Sothern in just about everything. Great gal.
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> It wasn't, but the top three were completely "me." VERY psychological.
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They are complex human stories, I'll say that. I'm surprised you went for *Rider on the Rain*. It's so 60s-European. I just love Bronson's character, and I never really cared for his movies. This one is the exception. He's very enigmatic, and quite funny, too. Most of all I love the "mood" of the film, the juxtaposition of filming normally glittering southern France in the dreary early spring, and the music. I have the soundtrack on CD.
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Wow, I never even heard of *Business and Pleasure*. Talk about a strange pairing! But I'd love to see it.
I had to start watching something else partway through *The Jazz Singer*. It didn't hold my interest, in spite of Peggy, who looked creamy (and Curtiz always makes a visually compelling film). I've seen *Big City* before and once was enough.
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I'm so glad you liked Night Key after all. I was really enjoying the supporting cast and Samuel S. Hinds, well, CinemAva ought to see her boy in this!
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The nineteen sixties come loaded with a specific "tone" or style that builds up a kind of somber mood not found in other eras/decades. Something about the stylized way men and women dress by then, together with the modernistic furnishings/settings and architecture represent a kind of mood/world that I often feel I need to revisit. I have a dozen or so films that I place in this category, and they range from light and comfortable all the way to the darkest like *Blast of Silence* or *Bunny Lake Is Missing*. Most of the movies are somber, in fact.
They often have kind of "artsy" music motifs and instruments, the bad ones have pop music, the mainstream ones have Mancini or Bernstein or Alex North...or Duke Ellington.
Home life is absent. there are no warm family homes or settings and therefore no warm family scenes. Just single people, many with no pasts, with mystery around them. There's often too much irony and cynicism and tons of self-investigation. It's the narcissistic age in infancy I suppose.
Anyway, sometimes I need to be in that world where there may be a character or two like me, still desperately hanging on to the old values, but reacting to travels through the new one.
*Something Wild* is one I might put in with *Blast of Silence* and *Murder by Contract*, except it's more female centered.
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This movie became more interesting just by my paying attention more to its style and tone than to the character played by Edwards. I wasn't sure how it would end, and the ending both satisfied and let me down a bit. I guess it's one of those movies that brings us along for a ride with someone you'd ordinarily never want to get close to.
It would make an interesting pairing to watch with *Blast of Silence*.
I don't see anything Grimes wrote, either, and he apparently loved it. Someone needs some frozen ropes.
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How wonderful that Powell will be SOTM in December...I didn't know. Thank you for the notice, musicalnovelty, I won't fail to look over that schedule.
I hope you enjoyed *After Tomorrow*, I don't believe I've ever seen it. I miss the days when the Fox Movie Channel used to air its early 'thirties films.
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I'll be recording *I Walk Alone*, I don't believe I've ever seen it.
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I love that scene on the veranda, too...and perceptive observation about Sam's way of receiving his wife, even in her pitiable state he treats her gently and deferently.
And how could the Lewton similarities have escaped me until now! Pefect.
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*UNDER CAPRICORN SPOILERS*
> In some ways it even had a "Dicken-ish" feel to it..
I hadn't thought of it before but I can see similarities. The strange courses of justice and injustice seemed to be prominent in Dickens, though I have to admit to not being as familiar with the writer as you and others may be. I always had a bit of a "block" (or blockheadedness) about him.
> It IS puzzling..and that is why I wish this film HAD taken more of "Dickens-like" turn and showed us more of the characters and their motivations by showing us some of their history. (or at least revealing it to us in a more specific way) As for Hattie and why she turned to drink, (and lost her mind for a while) I think Miss B MAY be onto something w/ her theory.... but again.. I am wondering if it may just be as simple a thing as she was not made of stern enough stuff and had been too protected all her life to comprehend how to deal w/ all that misery and despair (and filthy squalor)
I would like to know more about what went on in Ireland myself. Though it is kind of entertaining to spin out my own take on things. We're given just enough on the events and personalities that one can fill in a great deal with the imagination.
I can see Hattie's breakdown arriving either by way of being overwhelmed by the circumstances, or possibly by having slid into desperate measures to keep alive.
> I am going to rewatch that part (woo hoo for youtube)
Let me know what you find out!
> I likely would have too! (oh those three gals were hideous weren't they.. yet again.. a very "Dicken's" sort of group.. ha.. am I pushing this comparison too hard?? ha. I need to go watch David Copperfield or something.. ha. I am having Charles Dickens withdrawel.. HA)
Or the witches of Endor in Shakespeare.
> Can you see it now?
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> HA!! (taken out of context.. we could still be talking about the shrunken head.. ha. but as for your third picture.. yes.. I do see it now.)
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Ha! I'm surprised that "image" didn't haunt my dreams after seeing it. Hitch always has to stick something weird like that into his movies.
> It was so unexpected.. that is NOT how I ususally envision an Ingrid character.. she was so tragic and pathetic.. I worried she'd be a "looney" all through the movie and end up a pathetic suicide or something.. BOY am I glad I was wrong on THAT one.
That was rather Dickensian, too...Ingrid's entrance reminded me of "Miss Haversham" is it? The nutty one living in the past.
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I don't remember this scene in the movie, so maybe it's the cast and crew having fun between takes. *The Vanishing American*, 1925
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Richard Dix and Lois Wilson in *The Vanishing American*
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You are too funny. I actually am attracted to *Two For the Sea Saw* in a probably not too good way. I identify a little too much with Shirley's kooky dancer with an ulcer living in New York and having dated too many of the wrong men. Nothing there I should relate to, hahahaaa!! If ONLY some man would say to me: "Use me, please!"
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I only saw about five minutes of it and found it unfunny so I watched something else.
I wanted to see *The Miracle* but had to go out after about the first half hour. It looked interesting, I never saw Carroll Baker with dark hair and she was still quite young. It looked like it might have been filmed on location in Mexico or somewhere.
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That would have been hilarious! No, I don't remember Britton's voice from the pilot specifically, but I know it didn't sound like that.
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> Did anyone see YOUNG AND WILLING? That actress with the Betty Boop voice, I wanted to strangle her. I was hoping the young (but already feisty) Susan Hayward would have.
I didn't watch it but had it on in the background for a short while and I kept wondering who in the world was talking like that. I enjoyed *Force of Arms* (lamely retitled A Girl for Joe), I thought it was romantic and touching, the kind of movie Holden does best.
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> {quote:title=movieman1957 wrote:}{quote}
> I went to look for it and there is a link with the whole feature on it. It even has some reviews from "Rotten Tomatoes." I'll join in when I can.
Excellent!
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We've missed your posts, movieman! Have you seen *The Dark Command* recently? I just re-watched it last night. I watched three whole movies last night, the most movies I've seen in weeks.
I just realized that I already have *The Vanishing American* on DVD in one of my mega dvd westerns collections.
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No such thing as late around here.
I look forward to your thoughts on *Murder by Contract*.
I posted the link to *Under Capricorn* here in this thread.
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Did you see the movie, movieman?
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You ladies know your foreign movies. I liked that you had a Kurasawa movie listed. I am ashamed I forgot to include any. I should have put a couple of them on there, like *The Bad Sleep Well* (excellent! and so appropriate to today's scene) and *Dersu Uzala* (haunting).
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*SPOILERS Under Capricorn*
> I think Under Capricorn is a film that is supposed to be suprising in many ways. I think there is a certain "expectation" most folks (myself included) tend to have when they hear the name Alfred Hitchcock... he still leaves his mark on the film in some very fine ways (at least in my under-educated opinion)
I think so, too. It certainly widens out his scope for me. The movie almost seems to be right in between the English movies that were dramas, like *Rich and Strange*, and the coming films with big name stars. Yet it's like none of his others.
> It is very much a "love triangle"movie in many aspects, and I was not sure WHICH man I wanted her to end up with at first. (mostly becuase it really took me a while to see through Joseph Cotten's "layers". (you are right, it IS hard to get into his head) But when I finally did.. OH me.. what a WONDERFUL guy he was. I absolutely loved him.
Yes, it first seemed that Hattie needed to be "rescued" (by Adare/Wilding) from her husband (Sam/Cotten).
> He really DID love his wife and truly wanted only for her happiness (Ugh.. when he hides that necklace behind his back when he thinks she will not want it.. OH me.. it broke my HEART!)
That was a very poignant moment. "Rubies wouldn't go with this dress." Oh, fine distinction! This is where the supercilliousness of the upper crust is on display. Any woman should be thrilled to receive such jewels.
> And yet.. I was afraid he'd let his bitterness and jealousy get the better of him. It ALMOST did.. but he rose above it. I just think he was an exceptional sort of man, and I really liked his character a lot.
It did seem like he might lose himself to it and pull a De Winter (kill his wife).
> Charles gave her back her dignity.. and helped her to find herself again in a way that Sam seemed unable to do. And THAT is what had me so torn for a good long while in this movie.
He brought back the good old days to her, and her girlhood in Ireland. Losing her home and family in the manner she did was very traumatic, I'm sure.
> And OH that Hattie. What a transformation she goes through during this story.
I admit one thing puzzles me. Why she went off the deep end. Was it a culmination of all the events, they were just too much for her to deal with alone? Or was it as she told Adare, that what she "saw" in the little hut down at the harbour drove her over the edge? That part is very vague. She says she saw terrible things, indicating she saw the degradations of extreme poverty and ignorance and the depravity of those living on the docks. Was it seeing all that for the first time in her life, and alone, what drove her into a kind of depression? Was she like this already when Sam got his release and ever since? Or did she go downhill later? It's very puzzling. That's why I say some of the issues between the classes are imaginary, some are real. The reality is Hattie probably was not a strong person because for generations her family had every blow softened for them, and she never had to grapple with harsh realities. It was said by her husband that when he met her she had great courage and talks about how she rode a horse. Well, riding and jumping fences isn't the same as running off with the stable boy, killing your brother and living in a penal colony. I guess it was all too much for her. She had the heart and courage to do what had to be done, but not the strength to endure the consequences without help, the kind of support and help she'd had all her life.
> And in giving themselves up for the sake of each other... they both took a path that more or less RE-created who they were as people. So if you think about it, the two of them more or less completely lost their own identities in their attempts to lay aside their own wants and needs out of love for one another. (and yet their sacrifices nearly ENDED their relationship, instead of bolstering it. Very unexpected.)
That's wonderfully said! It's the whole movie in a nutshell, right there. Though I'd say Sam found himself in the colony, because it was a new world where a man like him could rise whereas in Ireland, at least in that part that was ruled by the gentry, he would never be more than a servant.
> I love that you mentioned the keys and what they represented. It reminded me SO much of Rebecca when the new Mrs DeWinter has to find her place w/ Mrs Danvers. (And PS: as a side note, I LOVED the part where after Hattie gets the keys back, she goes to the kitchen and figures out how to find out which of the three women should become the new cook, HA. Too funny)
I thought it was very clever of Hattie, good work! After all, she was raised to be the lady of the house, so it wasn't new to her, she just had to find her old self again, as you say.
> But it really IS a matter of "who's the boss" when you are dealing w/ the Milly's (and Danvers) of the world. And those keys told the tale. And Milly thought so long as she had them, and Hattie was kept weak (and Sam NEEDED her) that she had the run of the house and everything in it. (and she more or less pretty much did)
Absolutley. They were the keys to control and to pride of place. That's why Charles insisted Hattie carry them from the start, because the wearing of them hooked on her belt would inspire confidence in her.
How nice a twist that Hattie's first independent act was to burn the whip or cat o' nine tails, it looked like. She said there'd be no more whippings in the house. I thought she was a lot wiser and cool headed in handling those servants than I'd have been. I confess I'd probably have sent them all packing, except Winter, the manservant (kind of an echo of "De Winter"?).
> And I LIKE how that all played out too (when Milly finally tries to end things for Hattie) I like that even though Sam ends up coming to the rescue (yet again) it really was HATTIE who was able to (finally) rescue herself.. if only by speaking up and forcing Sam to believe her at last.That to me added a nice layer to the whole ending.
When Hattie first yelled for Charles to shoot the thing on her bed, I thought either it was a snake under the covers (this was Australia, after all) or that she was delusional. Now I wonder if it was the "thing" and if so, how did it get there and vanish before Charles arrived upstairs? Or had Hattie by now begun seeing it even when it wasn't there?
> PS: I can't see the third of your "three faces" pictures, (I am getting a "red x" instead)
Can you see it now?
I do agree she looked grand in the white ball gown. I was afraid of how she looked in the beginning.
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That scene near the end (in the water) always makes me cry. It's a movie that reminds me a little of *Harvey*.
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ro, i haven't forgotten this promise to wach UC, i hope to get to it either tonight or tomorrow. i really want to watch something and talk about it, and haven't had a good "hitch" in a long time. i also NEED an escape right now. so just an alert that i should be ready to chatter on *under capricorn* soon.
i wonder what happened to konway? he was so knowledgable about hitch. i guess we'll have to make do with grimes.
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Dear Mountain Topper....you know I know the feeling well of being there, but you also must know how a different way of looking at things can stimulate the BEST conversations, and I'm not sure MMG would generate much discussion if you had not seen Irene as you do. So I for one am glad you followed the beat of a different drummer. I don't take it personally at all. Now, if you said you didn't like John Ford, I'd never speak to you agan.
Kidding!
And P.S., I now and forever will see Hannah as a little "Irene Bullock", ha haaaaaa! Wonderful!
The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread
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Posted
> That's why we have some of the flooding. The ground is completely saturated. It was struggling to soak in.
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Let's hope no more hurricanes. I just pray we don't get another early, long winter. I'll just die.
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> It's all about female insecurity. When faced with seeing her love (Franchot Tone) for the first time in ten years, Phoebe (Katharine Hepburn) says, "I've lost all my looks." Her love doesn't immediately recognize her when he first sees her, and this increases her insecurity. He also tells her that she looks "tired." She believes her love doesn't want her because she's showing her age. That he wants a young, thoughtless girl. Sound familiar, Livvy?
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Very modern, in fact. Who is Livvy??
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> And I never picked up on any of that! Have you read "Now, Voyager"?
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Yes, a long time ago. From what I remember, the Davis movie was very faithful to the book.
> I love how he makes most every film better. He's such a serious actor, even though his entire career was basically "Bs."
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He is one of the greats that is hidden in plain sight. The Cabman is a wonderful achievement.
> I especially liked her in *Trade Winds*. The only screwy part was her marrying Blodgett (Ralph Bellamy).
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Or anyone marrying Blodgett. His character annoyed me.
> Very much so. And the search for a meaningful love is at the heart of all three.
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Even *Rider on the Rain*?
> Bronson "Americanizes" it. That really helped.
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He's American, alright. Did you see the twist coming, in who his character was?
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> I thought he was rather funny, too. He seems surreal with his total understanding of Mellie (Marlene Jobert). He's really tough on her but with a hidden heart.
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Surreal is a good choice of words. He's so out of place yet he's completely at ease and in control. And yet that final moment with the walnuts...that was a nice touch.
> You're such a girl!
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And Mellie's outfits! Love all the white.
The mother was interesting, so sour yet like Dobbs (Bronson), she had a hidden heart. Now as for the husband, I don't think he had anything but a stupid vanity and ego. I couldn't stand him. I think she and him end up divorced 20 minutes after the film story ends.