Bronxgirl48
-
Posts
14,533 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Posts posted by Bronxgirl48
-
-
I have a thread on it -- I've seen it many, many times over the years. It's not really a big favorite with me, but I HAVE to watch it when it's on. It's the New Yawk nostalgia.
I adore Natalie in it; less so Steve; the dinner scene at Tom Bosley's home IS one of my all-time favorites.
-
I agree about Wendell Corey at the end; I really didn't anticipate it quite that way.
CAGED is great; Gertrude Hoffman plays an old lifer who tells off cruel matron Hope Emerson.. (not an easy thing to do and still be in one piece, psychologically or physically)
-
LOCAL HERO
THE OFFENCE
CROSSING DELANCY
WEE GEORDIE (also called just GEORDIE)
THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH (Disney; okay, so I've never grown up....and I just love the title, too)
I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING
MURPHY'S ROMANCE
TIME LOST AND TIME REMEMBERED (also called I WAS HAPPY HERE)
TREASURE ISLAND (Disney version w/Robert Newton)
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS (great Kirk too)
THE CATERED AFFAIR (great Bette, or is that redundant??)
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
"Irma would have loved this"
-
Now that you are obeying me, lol, don't miss IF IT'S TUESDAY, THIS MUST BE BELGIUM.
(but you've probably seen it, and enjoy it as much as I do)
-
thanks, rr, for those succinct capsule comments on FORT APACHE and SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON; most helpful.
I like all the music in RIO GRANDE; I think it really sets the tone.
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
See Hot Topics.
She was a favorite of mine.
And the best thing in THE BIRDS.
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
And that shot through the door cross -- pure Ford. His silent film sensibilies are never far.
-
I agree with you about Bette's delivery of that line, and Bette can do no wrong in my book; it's just that the film has a "Priscilla Lane" blandness about it, when it should have looked like Lola!
And I like Priscilla too. Bogie was so boring as a "do-gooder"; that darned Production Code "morality". There should have been some humor in the story; it seemed so earnest..
-
I just saw THE OFFENCE this afternoon. Another underrated Lumet gem.
If I ever had any doubts that Sean Connery was an excellent serious actor, they've vanished from my mind now. This too, is pretty harrowing, it never lets you go from the precredit opening, with that "eye" light focusing on the psychodrama to come. The shifting narrative, getting to the grim truth of the matter, was fascinating. Ian Bannen matched Connery's performance; a great "pas de deux" between them in that room.
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
Actually I think the most reprehensible character in CAT PEOPLE is Dr. Judd. He should have had his license suspended.
But I guess Irena got him permanently suspended.
"Nothin' else to do, oh, nothin' else to do....."
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
The plot perhaps was a "little too fancy" as Fred MacMuray says to Eddie in DOUBLE INDEMNITY and could have benefitted in my view from a shorter running time, but it was still pretty good. Not great, but a fairly satisfying Stanwyck noir vehicle. And did you notice Gertrude CAGED Hoffman as the old aunt?
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
Yes, I saw! Now mind you, I haven't seen FORT APACHE or SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, so I can't compare/contrast with them, but, on its own, I think RIO GRANDE is excellent, and I completely agree with you about Ford's direction of Maureen -- (and that particular scene) O"Hara is luminous. I loved Wayne here, very low-key. (and his body language is just inimitable -- that almost-poetic balletic crouch as he's straining to catch a last glimpse of his son when he leaves the tent) Claude is very good and I loved Victor -- very funny but touching at the same time, the big brawling yet sweet lummox. J. Carroll Naish also very effective. The action scenes were brilliantly done (hope no stunt men or horses got killed in this one), and women in a Ford film are portrayed as waiting, waiting, waiting, as their men go off to war and do their "duty". I might have a quibble with perhaps one too many shots of Kathleen waiting, those iconic Ford poses. LOVED the gorgeous Victor Young score -- this is now one of my favorites. And I adore singing cowboys. All the songs were appropriate, like musical leitmotifs to the story.
-
Hmmm, an outsider or damned....I'll have to chew on that. Thanks, Mike.
-
And the "unison walking" was perfected in NEVER ON SUNDAY, if you get what I mean, lol.
-
I liked the good-looking print TCM ran, but MARKED WOMAN has never really been that exciting to me, "ripped from the headlines" or not. Am I the only one who thinks it's cliched and not that interesting? Or am I reacting to its Production Code constraints? (think what a juicy pre-code this could have been) And I feel so embarrassed for Bette in the beneath-her role of a nightclub "hostess". (like Donna Reed was a "hostess" in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY)
She stands out immediately amid the Warners "B" atmosphere and the rest of the cast when we first see her, puffing away dramatically on a cigarette as though she were doing a Charles Pierce impression of herself. She spews out the hackneyed lines with power and conviction, and her hip-slinging walk is already in full gear. Bogart is equally overqualified here as the earnest D.A. Eduardo Ciannelli is perfectly cast as the upwardly mobile gangster who keeps everybody else downwardly un-mobile.
Jane Bryan does a good job as Bette's younger sister and brings an unexpected edge to her part.
She's not just a bland, naive girl, but someone who has been waiting to break out of her shell for a very long time. She breaks out all right, but with unforeseen consequences. Lola Lane and Mayo Methot look convincingly "used".
Might someone explain to me why this is considered an example of early noir? Except for the fog, I don't see that at all.
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
I've said in other threads about Lewton films -- sorry to be redundant and you'll no doubt remember it, but it's relevant to our discussion -- that while they're a fascinating exploration of good and evil, the "good" is always awkwardly presented -- the dialogue for that "side" very in-your-face (i.e., Phyllis Brooks giving Dennis O'Keefe the "softy" speech in THE LEOPARD MAN; of Karloff in ISLE OF THE DEAD: "He wanted to protect us"; Alice's "what love is" speech (which I emotionally connect to, and I know you do too, but it's so...overt); Dr. Judd shaming the Satanists in THE SEVENTH VICTIM, etc. I could go on, but you get the idea.
So Alice and Ollie are the typical good Lewton people confronted with horrors they've never encountered before, the evil they not only don't understand, but can't even comprehend existing.
In Lewton's world, the "normal" people have no hidden agendas, so Alice as written is supposed to be unflaggingly supportive and loving, with no complex psychological underpinnings. That doesn't exactly seem realistic to me. But I think Jane Randolph brings some hidden depth there.
Would Oliver's ideal girl be a combination of Irena's sensuality and Alice's comradeship?..
I bet if Midge switched to contact lenses and wore purple evening gowns, Scottie would "fall" for her. She'd also have to get a better hairdo and stop speaking in those AWFUL "distinctive" Bel Geddes VOWELS.
No faker moi -- I ALWAYS like the slightly geeky guy. You know, the way MM tells Tony Curtis and Tom Ewell that she prefers the shy intellectual types to the macho showoffs.
Of course, if he looks like Robert Ryan, Rod Taylor, Alan Ladd, John Wayne or Randolph Scott, it wouldn't hurt. .
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
A wonderful Tom Hanks vehicle, NOTHING IN COMMON has been playing on the Flix Channel all this January, and is on this morning, January 19th, Saturday/early Sunday, at 4:30 A.M. Eastern Time, if you'd like to record it. Garry Marshall's direction is flat, scenes don't flow well, and there is an uneasy mix of comedy and drama, but Hanks is the main reason to watch..
With a cast that includes Jackie Gleason in his last film, Eva Marie Saint, Bess Armstrong (warm and appealing) and the beautiful and sexy Sela Ward, an improvisional air (of which I'm SURE Hanks was responsible) a very amusing insider's view of the advertising business, and some nifty jazz tunes, this is a Windy City delight that has some unexpectedly touching moments.
And don't forget Hector Elizondo and his rug.
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
My favorite Tom Hanks film is NOTHING IN COMMON, which has been playing on the Flix Channel all this month.
I say Yea. And Yay.
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
I always have to turn the sound to Mute when the bus comes along in CAT PEOPLE.
-
Well if Alice was Irena's coworker and not Ollie's, then Simone might have confided in her.
Normally I go for the good guys, not the ones with an edge (which is odd, considering I'm just beginning to appreciate Robert Ryan, a nice guy IRL but on screen very sinister). My little secret is that I probably could have a yen for Oliver myself, just as long as I wasn't a tormented Serbian catwoman. And I'm probably jealous of he and Alice, because they're no doubt making a lot of money in a field they enjoy, and they're great friends, and that's always the basis for a long-lasting relationship. And they can get great pie after hours. Even the chicken gumbo, though nobody likes it. And then they marry and live in that charming Early American house in that cozy upstate New York community and have a beautiful, sensitive, golden haired little girl.
Are my eyes green with envy? Drat, I thought so.
-
I'm looking forward to RIO GRANDE. I've never seen it. I'm gettin' my Pappy westerns, thanks to the Western Channel and TCM!
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
-
You are right about Scorcese's "absorption" of film -- that's just the word for it.
I also love all the Scottish melodies and the score in THE BODY SNATCHER, very evocative.
I can't imagine anyone else playing Irena. And to think she had to fall in love with that lox Kent Smith and he's never been unhappy in his whole little life and doesn't know how to handle a tormented beautiful woman going through hell.
I felt like throwing that apple pie in his face.
And as bad as he treated her, I can't abide what he did to daughter Amy. Get lost in a snowbank yourself, Oliver!!
-
There she is in all her feline-like glory; beautiful photo, Miss G..
Another thing I love about her performance in CAT PEOPLE is her eerie delivery of certain words, especially ones that start with the letter "h". I don't know if it's her particular enunciation in English, or an excellent attempt at creating a mood, but she halts before the words "haunting", "husband" and "happy".
Message was edited by: Bronxgirl48
Any Natalie Wood Fans?
in Your Favorites
Posted
One of the most poignant, heartbreaking scenes of regret and longing come from Natalie Wood at the end of SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, as she's walking with Warren Beatty. It gets to me every time.
INSIDE DAISY CLOVER is a quirky, campy little gem; I love the way she scrunches up her nose, especially at Robert Redford..
Despite being nominated several times for an Oscar, I think she still is an underrated actress. She brought a lot of emotional depth to all her performances, even in her less than stellar movies. I think if she hadn't been a Hollywood star, she could really have stretched herself in classic stage dramas.