MissGoddess

*TV Cops and Private Eyes* In order of personal preference. 1. John Thaw as "Inspector Morse" Inspector Morse 2. James Garner as "Jim Rockford" The Rockford Files 3. Angie Dickinson as "Suzanne 'Pepper' Anderson" Police Woman 4. David Janssen as "Harry Orwell" Harry O 5. Martin Milner as "Officer Pete Malloy" Adam-12 6. Peter Falk as "Columbo" Columbo 7. Telly Savalas as "Kojak" Kojak 8. Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum Magnum P.I. 9. Bruce Willis as "David Addison" Moonlighting 10. Jack Lord as "Det. Steve McGarrett" Hawaii Five-O 11. William Conrad as "Cannon" Cannon 12. Tom Selleck as "Det. Jesse Stone" Stone Cold 13. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as "Inspector Lewis Erskine" The F.B.I. 14. Jack Webb as "Sgt. Joe Friday" Dragnet 15. Raymond Burr as "Chief Det. Robert T. Ironsides" Ironsides Honorable mention to: Honey West, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, McMillan and Wife, Burke's Law I left out Baretta and Barnaby Jones because I don't remember them. I also left out amateur detectives like Hart to Hart, spies in The Saint, I Spy, The Avengers and Secret Agent/Danger Man or action characters like The Six Million Dollar Man or The Bionic Woman even though all these people technically "solved crimes". I tried to stick to those who (barely) maintain some license to practice on or off the police force. I also left off lawyers and peripheral legal servants like the medical examiner in Quincy though that's just my way of thinking. If I included them, I'd have to include Marshal Dillon and Andy Taylor...that's just stretching it too much for me. Shows I'm most interested in seeing for the first time: M Squad, Peter Gunn, Ellery Queen, Madigan, McCloud, Hong Kong, The Detectives (Robert Taylor), Highway Patrol.

Hi Andy, I've had my eye on that biography for some time. I keep hoping it will drop in price at the online retailers, as it's a bit pricey for me. I'm sure it's a good read on an actor who seems such a contradiction to most of his roles.

Thank you, Rey, and congratulations on the "gig"!

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}This post was so poignant - I had no idea you loved Sydney Carton so much! > > I love the lost heroes.....the ones who give up everything in the end, no matter how their ideals have been battered and worn. > > I also see Sydney as very similar to Roy Earle. > hi, thanks I was pretty sleepy when I wrote it so I had to come on early this morning and make it legible, lol. I think Carton is some sort of blueprint for lost souls, or scalawags that find regeneration..but what I love about Colman's performance is how he perfectly captures anguish, longing, loss, and self-deprecating cynicism---all in such a way that suggests romance and sacrifice. I have never seen Colman as romantic in the usual movie star way...I think what is romantic about him is when he loses or sacrifices and longs for the girl, more so than when he's kissing and hugging or wooing. At any rate, for me his "Sydney Carton" is one of the great romantic figures. He lifts the movie up to greatness.

I'd love to see that line-up. I've never seen his *MacBeth* or *Black Magic* and only parts of *Chimes at Midnight*.

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}I LOVE *A Tale of Two CIties*, Ronald Colman is the whole movie to me, and yes I wish he had played more rascals! He' s so good at it! The self loathing Sydney has rings true the way Colman does it. Raffles is similar, but with a lighter touch. Colmam as Sidney Carton is a prince in rags. He thinks little of himself anymore, but is above the others in the world of the law. He knows all the tricks and he knows the dirt they're stuck in. So what of his inner ideals that have been packed away, bearing rust from disuse but he pulls them out once more: self sacrifice, for a friend, "He has no greater love than this, that he should give his life in behalf of his firends." Colman's expressions are all you need to look to at this point, his face shows all he's lost, and what fate befalls him shortly. Yet he can still give courage to a frightened young seamstress. So long as she can hold his hand, she's okay. When he tells her she will be okay, i in the audience feel he's talking to me, to all of us. Sydney Carton is Tom Doniphon. Edited by: MissGoddess on Aug 8, 2011 7:11 AM

I often feel that way about period "epics", though Hunchback I guess just impresses me so, and the performances. Many times these kinds of films make me restless and tired. Another I like and get drawn into every time is *A Tale of Two Cities*, but that's because it's my favorite Ronald Colman performance and character. I WISH he'd played more rascals like Sydney Carton. But then, Sydney is one of the rare characters in literature or movies, one of the greats.

> {quote:title=movieman1957 wrote:}{quote}"The Naked Spur" with that glorious scenery on the big screen would be a treat. I'd go to "Bad Day" also. I hope you can go for me. Since those two are on a weekend, I will do my very best, sir. I'm sure they'll be super on the big screen. Besides, I need to see some real men like Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan and Jimmy Stewart! Edited by: MissGoddess on Aug 7, 2011 9:53 PM

I used to confuse those titles all the time, too, espcially since Rex is in both movies. *Hunchback of Notre Dame* is another Laughton period film I find myself sucked into whenever it's on. It's a really magnificent piece.

Oh my goodness, how did I miss this???? I didn't even check my Film Forum calendar closely...there are so many I would love to see on the big screen. I really want to see *On Dangerous Ground* though I think I have seen it in a theater...and it's being shown again later in the year as part of a Bernard Herrmann tribute so I may wait on that one. I've seen *The Wild Bunch* in the theater, too...that you have to see on the big screen to really appreciate it. *The Naked Spur*, *Bad Day at Black Rock*, *The Set-Up* and *Clash by Night* are the ones I'm most interested in.

*St Martin's Lane* is actually the alternate (British?) title...*Storm in a Teacup* is another film Viv did with Rex, more of a comedy. It's very cute, too.

Your words about JJ made me immediately think of another character in another movie: Robert Ryan's "Smith Ohlrig" in *Caught*.

Jackie I can't wait for you to see all of *Sidewalks of London*.

> If the emotion in the film is that good, the period piece stuff won't matter a lick to me. I like *How Green Was My Valley*, after all. > Jackie said it better than I ever could. It is is a simple film. It's not Pride and Prejudice, if that helps. And yes, I'd say it's similar in spirit to HGWMV, because it puts the focus on where the heart will find peace...and the way the world can cut into that peace and damage it. > > Could have fooled me! > Bus Boy!

> {quote:title=FrankGrimes wrote:}{quote} > *It's a wonderful character for Laughton, proud and humble at the same time, and very emotional. I don't know how well you can deal with the period setting, though. You don't seem to like any period movie unless it's a western.* > > You're right about my not like period pieces, all that much. I do like westerns, horror, and mysteries from older times. > Then you may not care for it, in spite of its wonderful, human characters. > > Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! > Don't worry, it's the very opposite of "preachy". I like the message about the hypocrisies of the society. > *You watched it!* > > I'm watching it, Your Highness. > I'm not "your Highness". Though I can admit I feel a sneaking sympathy to her inability to bear life as it really is.

> {quote:title=JackFavell wrote:}{quote}She's so good, touching as you say and my favorite scene is the one where she tells the town fathers that they can't take Rembrandt 's paintings, because he works for her and so all his money goes to her as well - "I don't owe you a brass farthing.... and that's the law in Holland!" > I liked that, too. She was so clever! The creditors were so mean. > Laughton is wonderful straight through... I have a dozen favorite scenes in this movie... how fed up he gets with having to conform, paint nice pictures....his description of women at the beginning, the way he paints Saskia right after she dies, the beggar who he paints and then who teaches him how to beg for a living...oh, there are so many. > Talk about a full life he led. He was a true artist, that's for sure. The movie leaves you with the impression he experienced the good and the bad, the shallow and the depths. I doubt it could have been made half so well in Hollywood. > And you are right, the way the movie looks is incredible - hot and flat, with that blue sky over the water, and the old houses and windmills, then the people's faces.... right out of a painting. I always wonder if they filmed in Holland. Me, too! It looks very believable. I love the interiors of the old mills, the village buildings, wonderful. Not cluttered, very clean looking. I was craving to live in a windmill by the time it was over.

*Hmmmmm, what you wrote to Jackie about it makes me curious. I don't have it, though.* It's a wonderful character for Laughton, proud and humble at the same time, and very emotional. I don't know how well you can deal with the period setting, though. You don't seem to like any period movie unless it's a western. I love the last scene, when he quotes King Solomon's words at Ecclesiastes, which are among my favorite in the Bible. *She's playing you, Your Highness?* You watched it!

This is my favorite Elsa Lanchester role now. She was so touching. It's a beautiful movie and I like the details of Dutch life filmed in a way that seemed to harken to Rembrandt's chiarascuro.

> {quote:title=FrankGrimes wrote:}{quote}*I was really crying by the end.* > > So was I. The ending really hit me good. I was not prepared for it. > > *Laughton puts on quite a show, and anyone can see how he could be so taken by Vivvy's "Liberty".* > > He is masterful in the film and Vivien is always darling. > You should see him as *Rembrandt*. That's a terrific film, too. > I could really identify with "Charlie." Sometimes things just don't go your way in life and love. > Sometimes? I'd settle for "sometimes they do", but in my case it's always "never". > *Funny, I watched The Big Street last night and the stories sort of remind me of each other.* > > Oh, yeah? If that's the case, I'll end up liking it. You should, it's a terrific story. I think it's Lucy's best movie performance. She's really mean.

> {quote:title=FrankGrimes wrote:}{quote}*I'm watching* *Sidewalks of London...I forgot how great a little film it is! So delightful!* > > It is. It really is. I was surprised by how much I ended up loving it. I was really crying by the end. Laughton puts on quite a show, and anyone can see how he could be so taken by Vivvy's "Liberty". Funny, I watched *The Big Street* last night and the stories sort of remind me of each other.

I'm watching *Sidewalks of London*...I forgot how great a little film it is! So delightful!

> Thanks for the link Wendy. I'll try to get it this weekend and maybe I'll have something to add. (So much has been said I can't imagine what but maybe...) Of course there will be something to add: your opinion. And that's what we care about.

*It just hit me today because the final shots in each film are identical with the exception of the focus. Then I realized the love stories are pretty much identical (Romeo and Juliet, as Jackie said) and the setting of a "court" (power struggle) was identical. It's just one is a king and the other is a queen.* I have to say, of all the unique comparisons you've pulled out of your rabbit hat, that's one of the sharpest. I'm impressed. I'm impressed with ALL the company she (me) keeps here. What a classy, saavy group. The big wig critics of today should write half so interestingly about movies.

Wow, I never would have thought of all movies, *The Little Foxes.* How on earth did you figure that out? Talk about worlds apart....yet they both really are about "get us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the grapes...."

CinemAva, let me add my humble compliments to one of your most enjoyable posts. Wow! You really described that sweet odor to a "T". This paragraph had me rolling: Don't get me wrong, not that they're both not weasels and chiselers...they are, Blanche... they are! But if I'm going to deal with 'em, let me have the guy who'll wine me and dine me before he takes my money over the guy who'll roll me up in a rug and dump my body into the Hudson River after he smacks me around for my PIN number. The main difference between "Harry" and "Sydney" as you so colorfully described it, is sex appeal. Widmark really has none (as himself in an interview I found him sexy, though) and though Curtis is not my style, I won't deny he has plenty of catnip for the ladies. In fact, I don't think he'd have had a career without it. Fascinating ramble!