Fedya

1948, actually. She died in my hometown of Kingston, NY, and has a street named after her, except that they misspelled it Elisa Landi Drive with only one S.

Do you have money coming out the wazoo, too?

On the TV show The Greatest American Hero, the changed the surname of the main character because the original was too close to Hinckley, the man who shot Ronald Reagan.

I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode with John Waters, where Homers says "the gays took all our good names, like Bruce, and Lance, and Julian." Close to 20 years ago, I heard an interview with some author who had written a book about the meaning and use of names, who pointed out that in books and movies, Bruce had come to mean either stereotypically gay, or stereotypically Australian. That prompted a caller to call in and joke that he had a gay Australian friend named Bruce, but he kept going back to Sydney.

How do you thank a city that's taken you from crayons to perfume?

Only have a Regal multiplex in my little burg, and no Fathom events. I think I'd have to drive over an hour away to Albany for the nearest one.

Yeah, I read the Wikipedia article too after posting. I didn't know the bit about the U-boat getting seized by customs. (I knew Newfoundland wasn't part of Canada until 1949; I just didn't know those scenes were filmed in Newfoundland.)

My understanding is that she was supposed to play one of the Hutterites (Glynis John eventually got that character although they may have had to rework the script), but that Bergner fled to America or something.

I'm looking forward to next Sunday's movie in the Noir Alley slot: The Bible: In the Beginning.

If this was a Fathom event, did they ship out a whole bunch of prints?

"Termagants" it is, then.

I think he's referring to the hat in the photo Movie Collector posted above.

Did they even show a print? I'd assume it was digital.

And I also scratch my head at some of what gets called a comedy. Last year's BBC list included The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, which is unfunny and terrible.

I can't speak for GGGerald, but I'd think of something the equivalent of the plethora of TV sitcoms starring standup comedians we got from Seinfeld on.

Oh, and I watched Ben off my DVR because it and Willard are this week's TCM Underground selections, and I wanted to do a blog post on it.

Ben (1972). This sequel to Willard picks up where the previous movie left off, quite literally: the closing scenes of Willard are reused for the opening credits. Everybody in LA is aghast at what the rats did to Bruce Davison and Ernest Borgnine, except for little Danny (Lee Montgomery), a little brat who fits a whole bunch of Hollywood tropes: sickly kid (he had a heart operation, and will probably need another that could kill him) and without friends. Until Ben the rat shows up at his window. Danny enables Ben in the rats' assault on LA, while everybody else understandably wants them dead. The movie is terrible, largely because of Danny. The movie had an Oscar-nominated theme song, most memorably sung by Michael Jackson over the closing credits. But it's introduced by Danny, doing his worst Rex Harrison Sprechgesang style. If he could talk to the animals.... TV star Joseph Campanella plays the cop leading the hunt for the rats, while Meredith Baxter, pre-David Birney and Family Ties, plays Danny's older sister Eve. 4/10

Have you seen Miranda or Splash?

Korean spam p*rn.

Have you seen Day for Night? It's probably Truffaut's most conventional movie, and the movie that caused Godard to break off his friendship with Truffaut because Truffaut wasn't challenging the right people. It's one of the great movies about movies.

Boy meets tulip; boy falls in love with tulip; boy marries tulip. Standard love story, isn't it?

I caused some consternation here many years back when I suggested that Member of the Wedding was the movie that answered the question of what movie you'd get if Woody Allen played the part of a 12-year-old girl. I didn't like Reflections in a Golden Eye either; I haven't seen The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter all the way through yet.

Chuck Schumer only loves himself, but I don't know if it's fair to say he hates weakness and minorities.

Come to Dinner (1934). Warner Bros. made this Broadway Brevity, a 22-minute parody of MGM's Dinner at Eight from late the previous year, using as much as possible actors who looked like the stars of the MGM version. The stand-in for Wallace Beery is probably the weakest, but the stand-ins for John Barrymore and the actresses are a hoot, especially the Billie Burke impersonator. There's a scene of the doctor visiting Jean Harlow's apartment, changed here to have 12 maids go into a musical number parodying stars like Mae Zest and Greta Gargle. The best change to the plot involves the John Barrymore character. Instead of being an alcoholic, washed-up actor, he's addicted to lemons(!) and wants to wind down his career playing bit parts. His press agent is so exasperated by his refusal to take starring roles that it's the press agent who tries to gas himself! (The Barrymore character stops him, pointing out that the hotel managers came up to him to comment not about an unpaid bill, but the high price of the gas he was using.) If you like Dinner at Eight, you'll absolutely love this. 9/10 It's on the DVD release of Dinner at Eight that's part of the Harlow four-film set available at the TCM Shop and Amazon.

She was also in The World, The Flesh, and the Devil, in which Harry Belafonte shows once again that he couldn't act.