Fedya

The Dolly Sisters (1945) Fox musical biopic about a pair of Hungarian immigrant sisters (Jenny played by Betty Grable and Rosie played by June Haver) who dance and become a huge stage success that way. Male lead and romantic interest is John Payne playing Harry Fox (a real person), who falls in love with Jenny; this also provides the dramatic tension in that Rosie wants to keep the act together while Jenny loves Harry. Harry doesn't want to wait for Jenny. In real life, Jenny and Rosie married within a year of each other. Rosie's first two husbands are completely ignored so that the movie can have a plot. If you like Fox musicals, you'll love this one. 7/10.

Paramount, of course, doesn't have much of a catalog of classic films, having sold the rights to pre-1950 films to MCA, which wound up part of Universal.

Marsha Hunt's 100th birthday. (Still alive as far as I know. I haven't checked the rest of the day's movies.)

Isn't Wednesday the first night of the George Pal tribute?

Yes you can. The Big Sleep is an absolute mess.

THIS. So much this. It never ceases to amaze me when people think being able to buy channels a la carte is going to be a good thing for TCM.

Ice Castles (1978). Lynn-Holly Johnson makes her screen debut as Alexis, an Iowa figure skater living with her widower father (Tom Skeritt). She's got promise, and a coach takes her on. The first hour or so of the movie plays out like it could be an interesting exposé on the people who exploit amateur athletes. But then the film veers into melodrama when Alexis has an on-ice accident that has her in a temporary coma and then after she awakens, still near-blind. She pities herself to the point that expected her to shriek "Where's the rest of me" in response to her missing eyesight. Robbie Benson was hired for his good-by-1970s-standards looks to play the part of her chronic quitter boyfriend Nick. He's dropped out of college, and then quits hockey. And he quits Alexis when he sees a creepy sports reporter putting the moves on her. Benson does get to channel Bruno Antony in one scene however when he's watching Alexis at a competition. Eventually everybody comes around and tries to get Alexis back into competition, which results in the movie becoming filled with comical plot holes. Really nobody knew about her condition despite the fact that she was being touted as a future world/Olympic champion? 5/10 if you're looking for a good movie; 7/10 if you're looking for a good comedy.

It's a mess of a movie starring a famous female pop singer. It is, however, a gloriously fun mess. And then there are Diana Ross' fashions....

Kermit the Frog was a Guest Programmer.

It may pleasure you in a hundred ways, but not in the way I'd prefer.

My sister was born on the same day as Justine Bateman. Mom was born on the same day as 60s singer Tommy Roe ("Dizzy"; it's probably on Youtube)

Isn't Mahogany on this month's schedule as part of the Anthony Perkins tribute?

Harvey Levin is a lawyer by training and generally extremely good about sourcing the stories on TMZ. I thought the TMZ story had said Petty was brain dead, and removed from life support.

Actually, the rules have been in place for a long time that the movie has to run in LA. That's why Limelight didn't get a nomination until about 1970. The rules have since been changed although I don't know all the details.

Woman in the Dunes (1964) An entomologist goes looking for sand bugs on a Japanese island and misses the last bus. So the locals house him with a woman. The only thing is, she's at the bottom of a sand pit, the the other locals keep her as a slave there. And they're not going to let the guy out either. It goes on like this for nearly two and a half hours. This is the sort of film that people who slag foreign films as pretentious and tedious likely have in mind. And a thoroughly stupid ending to boot. 3/10. I'm being generous.

Using lots of colors and font sizes in a post is distracting and makes it more difficult to read.

They're the other side of the coin from the man-hating "feminists".

Olivia might have a different opinion on that....

TCM showed her appearance in Zombies on Broadway just last Saturday.

A Star Is Born (1976). You know the story. Talented male entertainer (in this case a singer played by Kris Kristofferson) is destroying his career by drinking too much. He meets a wannabe star (Barbra Streisand). They fall in love and her career becomes big while he continues to suffer. This isn't as bad as some of the reviews would have you believe, but it's certainly nowhere near as good as the Janet Gaynor version. Streisand already starts off in Hollywood a few notches above the bottom. And the Andy Devine character is missing. The problem with the music is, I think, the songwriting. Streisand's style of singing is an acquired taste and this movie won't change anybody's opinion either way. 7/10. If you haven't seen it before, it's on TCM overnight between Sept. 29/30, along with the other three versions of the story (including What Price Hollywood?, of course).

I'm just glad it's a Tubes' T-shirt, and not a tube top.

Have you seen The Gang's All Here? The finale, the "Polka Dot Polka", has the stars' heads against a kaleidoscopic background: Forward to about 4:20 for Pallette.

At least it's not as bad as people wearing the Ernesto "Che" Guevara shirts.

I got my 10-year-old niece a DVD of The Long, Long Trailer for Christmas last year. My sister responded that she and the niece had just been watching Lucy the previous day.

Oh, and for worst movie I've ever seen, I'd have to pick Dondi.