Bronxgirl48
-
Posts
14,533 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Posts posted by Bronxgirl48
-
-
-
On 7/25/2020 at 3:36 PM, laffite said:
I was flabbergasted when I saw Andy in A FACE IN THE CROWD. I didn't know he could act like that. He seemed a natural. It was so long ago. I remember thinking, what happened. I mean did he ever equal that? I remember reading that he did not like drama, or something. Here is an unpleasant disclosure, hee ... I remember laughing my rear off when I first saw DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER and in the theater when if first came out! But it seemed to me he could have had a better career with than innate talent.
Not a Dick Powell fan, but he is good nonetheless. The early singing made me wince, that high pitched syrupy sweet sound assailing my ears. Oooouieeee. Some grain of pseudo-macho made me see him as a sissy. But of course I am so mature now ... I couldn't think that now. (think: mature = old) But I will look for those titles you mentioned. Now that I have TCM again.You had mentioned on the R2 thread that you preferred ALGIERS over PEPE LE MOKO and I agree. Hedy Lamarr DID have a rep for decidedly un-stellar acting chops. But whatever her faults, the vacuous look or whatever, served her well in ALGIERS. She was relatively non-emotive (I seem to remember) while listening and talking to M. Boyer about Paris They made Paris sound so good within that confining labyrinth. Looking so serenely beautiful was enough for her, or a good deal of enough.
So ... why don't says something about Merle Oberon's Kathy now? Seriously, I would love to hear your take. I don't remember anything to wrong with her but the movie is not fresh in mind. But I sort of get your point, that "icy" quality. After reading your review of this Kathy, delighted to have a champion in Heathcliff to entertain her whims, Merle doesn't seem right at all. Now you make me want to watch it again through your eyes. You're a game changer, Barb. In fact. Your reviews are so trenchant, I am drawn to watch them.///
Was Andy in DON'T GO NEAR THE WATER? (I read that at first as DON'T DRINK THE WATER, which I think is an unfortunate Jackie Gleason "comedy"). Yes, flabbergasted is the right word to describe Griffith's fabulously unsettling A FACE IN THE CROWD performance. I feel the same way about Robert Walker's Bruno in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. Of course, we know that Bob could deliver straight drama, a la THE CLOCK, whereas there seems to be no precedent for Andy's Lonesome Roads. (that anyone knows about, that is) I believe he, like Fred MacMurray, made the decision to "go back to" more benign roles as their fans would not accept them as villainous characters. (Hence MacMurray w/Disney and Griffith as the Mayberry sheriff).
Dick Powell had a face like Henry in the cartoons. Baby-ish but weird, lol. Never appealed to me in any romantic way. My favorite Powell movies are IT HAPPENED TOMORROW, SUSAN SLEPT HERE and YOU NEVER CAN TELL.
I'll have to check out what I wrote about ALGIERS vs. PEPE LE MOKO. Hedy and Charles do make a soulful pair.
As for Merle Oberon, the iciness serves her well in A SONG TO REMEMBER.
-
1
-
-
Agree about THE MAD MISS MANTON's "tinge of noir" (and in 1938 yet!) Missy and Hank pair up again of course in THE LADY EVE.
-
On 8/1/2020 at 4:33 PM, laffite said:
I don't think that Barb will mind if I reveal a comment. "It sounds like my tummy after eating a lot of dairy products." It does have a sort of tummy sound. Not that tummies can compare with the Sea
.
I'm lacto intolerant (yogurt and milk) Cheese is fine, which I'm grateful for because I could never live without pizza.
-
On 8/1/2020 at 3:31 PM, laffite said:
Gosh, Barb ... Are you sure you haven't been there? Your description sounds like a travelogue. I mean, I'm really there! I can do without Yul, though.
I don't know why I romanticize Tsarist Russia.
My Russian grandmother wouldn't even talk about what she went through with the Cossacks.
-
19 hours ago, laffite said:
Hello, please indulge me this. These have not posted anywhere, save for the last one, I think. I am thrusting this upon you and thanks for reading. I seek nothing except that they see the light of day, thanks for letting me push them. Has anyone seen these?
The Barbarian (1932) Myrna Loy, as a high-born English lady (Diana Standing) traveling in Egypt. She spends a good deal of time staving of the cheeky advances of their dragoman named Jamil (Ramon Novarro), who plays an Arab. She remains aloof and strikes back like a hissing cat. The two of them get stranded in the desert at one point and he exacts some minor revenge in a quite stark erotic scene where she is relegated to minor status. Treatment like this has been seen before, but hey, Miss Standing is a lady. Their are hints of Swept Away here but, rest assured, only minutely. Loy is on the whole rather feisty and self-assured in the role. Edward Arnold is faintly ridiculous as Pasha, a rich Arab landowner who is also after Loy. He gets nowhere. As far as any serious rapprochement between Miss Standing and Jamil might occur, the movie covers its tracks by making it clearly understood that Diana Standing's mother is Egyptian. Some fine desert scenery.
Pretty Poison (1968) - I got this one for Tuesday. No, no, I had a lot to do on Tuesday, I mean ... I got it for Weld. I was curious to see her in the embodiment of something other than Thalia Menninger. Thalia was cute and this new embodiment doesn't disappoint on that score; as to other things, well ... She was the pretty poison though you wouldn't know it at first. This thing was boring me no end and I was thinking that it was just some bomb that one never talks about blah blah blah. Then the bomb hit, the big shift in the middle when something happens that changes everything. I didn't know anything about this and I thought I was watching a budding romantic comedy complete with pretty poison but it turned out to be a thriller of sorts, a weird one. Tuesday's acting gets better in the after part of the film. She can really put on a nasty face when she is being, well, nasty. As to Anthony Perkins, it was interesting to see him be real after all that nonsense at the beginning. So it turned out rather entertaining, one of the biggest turn-arounds I know in a film. They nearly waited to long to make it happen. They almost lost me.
Tulip Fever (2017) A love story (actually two of them) play out amid the backdrop of the famous tulip mania of Amsterdam, ca 1634. Both love stories hinge on wild improbabilities that are almost laughable. The story is based on a novel so we can perhaps blame it on that. Regardless, the movie is vastly entertaining. As we are told Tulip trading was rampant and "fortunes were won and lost" all because of a "beautiful flower."
Sophia (Alicia Vikander) is an orphan under the care of a convent that specializes in providing care and education for such unfortunates. She is appropriated by a wealthy nobleman (Cornelius Sandvoort) in Amsterdam who wants to marry and sire an heir. She fails but Cornelius turns out to be a saint, an anomaly for one so powerful in such times. He has a love for his young wife and by and by he hires a handsome young painter (Dane DeHann, (who bears a rather strong resemblance to a young Leonardo DeCaprio) to paint a portrait of he and his wife. Uh oh.
Meanwhile Sophia's servant, Maria (Holliday Grainger) is carrying on with a fishmonger (James Dryden), who wants to marry her and due to his low station tries to strike it rich with tulips. Complications ensue whereby Sophia and Maria concoct a scheme which might be termed the Mission Impossible of 1634 that strains credulity but can be overlooked with effort. Alica Vikander, the main heroine, agrees to some clandestine sittings for her young painter and in the doing is mind-stopping beautiful. (Vermeer would have loved her. She would not need golden earrings, e.g.) What happens besides sitting and painting in these sessions is easily surmised.
Judi Dench is the Mother Superior but not per the usual, she is capable of the nod and the wink and can speak quite plainly not to mention her business acumen. You see, the convent grows, buys, and sells tulips and they need a shrewd one to handle all that ... Judi does just this with aplomb all the while maintaining at least an appearance of piety. (Although she actually hits somebody over the head with a club).
Another character is old Amsterdam, or the depiction of it. Swarming denizens bustle about in droves along streets and waterfront fulfilling the need for historical context (along with the tulips, of course).
''''
Isn't THE BARBARIAN a remake of Valentino's SON OF THE SHEIK? Ramon Navarro was no Rudy!
TULIP FEVER almost sounds like a parody of some type, lol. 1634 Amsterdam? A swingin' place!
Tuesday Weld! First saw her as Danny Kaye's crippled daughter in THE FIVE PENNIES. She evolved in my eyes into a pretty interestingly "mannered" and "cultish" actress. Catch her in LORD LOVE A DUCK.
-
On 7/31/2020 at 10:21 PM, laffite said:
I don't know about that. You sound more and more like a Riviera Girl to me.
By way of Fordham Road.
The Bronx never gets any love in movies! Always Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn!
-
On 7/31/2020 at 10:15 PM, laffite said:
I love to read your pans. I sometimes don't feel confident panning movies. What if everybody else in the world loves it?
Hey, I wonder if Dix watched Popeye cartoons. He knows so much about spinach, hee hee.
That's too bad we have a dog that creates a happy ending. How hackneyed can you get. I prefer my dogs like the one in High Sierra where at the end we had a true pooch fatale. What a lot of trouble he caused.
You interrupt you movies with phone calls?
///
I do enjoy a lousy movie. Watched a bit of one very late last night -- never heard of it, either -- something called THE WRATH OF GOD, (last of the Rita Hayworth SUTS line-up). 1972 I believe. A prune-like Robert Mitchum masquerading as some priest. South American "shenanigans". Of-the-times sex and violence. I kept waiting for Eli Wallach to show up in a Frito Bandito moustache.
I used to confuse Richard Dix with Chester Morris. Both had that same "American" square jaw.
"Pard" was so sweet in HIGH SIERRA, like the doggie in JOHNNY EAGER, both there to make the (anti) hero more "conventionally" human.
I have a dear friend who always feels slighted if I don't respond to her immediately, so a few films have gone by the wayside...
-
On 7/27/2020 at 12:19 AM, laffite said:
I have this coming soon.
You mean my comments comparing Walbrook's performance(s) with a certain German dictator? Uh-oh! (it's okay, lol)
-
On 7/31/2020 at 10:04 PM, laffite said:
THANK YOU !!!!
I dislike him and his stupid movies. I always thought that DANCES WITH WOLVES was the worst Best Picture Award ever given. But some foundation had BRAVEHEART the winner there. I just recently watch this latter on a recommendation and so I stuck through it. O Lord!! Much to kitchy-kitchy-koo for me. I saw FIELD OF DREAMS with my mom when it first came out and hated it. I like baseball but all that syrupy goop in the movie killed me. He had Shoeless Joe Jackson batting from the wrong side of the plate. Unforgivable. I think Kevin was a Spielberg wannabe, roping in the masses with that kind of stuff. Spiel knew how to do that but Kevin did not.
///
He's just a non-entity to me.
Hilarious the way some people compare Kevin to Gary Cooper.
-
1
-
-
On 7/31/2020 at 8:14 PM, laffite said:
So glad you are feeling better. Ever so kind as usual, friend ; thanks. Now that you have puffed me up I may have to put up a couple more if you don't mind. I'm the damn fool who gets complemented and then opens the floodgates. Nah, I will be judicioso as I bask in the warmth of your kindness. Shortly then, a couple of mini R.
Glad you liked the music. I'm going to foist another one on you, if I so may. If you don't know, you can play a youtube musical selection, then right click on your browser icon. This will allow you to open another window and browse while the music is still playing on the earlier window. You can go back and turn off the music by holding the cursor over the main icon and see all the windows you have open, then you click on one and there you are. You may already know this.
I like Jennifer Jones. Have you seen Carrie (1952). With Olivier and Mariam Hopkins in one of her nastiest roles, and of course Miss Jones as the eponymous heroine. I think this an excellent film. Oh, not to forget Eddie Albert. He was born to play Mr Drouet, the kind of guy that's always joking; you never know if serious or not. That's Eddie. I may try a mini ramble on that if i can remember enough. I think I do. I've seen it a number of times. Have you seen this?
That's cute about Robot Monster. Who knew an old schlocker like that could be salubrious.
So glad you're better. You sound like your wonderful self again.
Later,
L
///
The more music the better! Soothes my soul...
You know, I saw CARRIE eons ago and remember thinking it was one of Olivier's best performances (along with SPARTACUS and BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING -- Larry is best when uncharacteristically underplaying) but my memory retrieval is shaky on the film in its entirety. If you find your comments, please post them either here or Rambles II.
Well, Florida dodged a bullet with Isaias.
But it's only August.
-
lafitte, I watched ROBOT MONSTER.
And now my tummy is fine!
Thank you so much for this remedy!!
-
Here in Boca we are nervously awaiting the possible landfall of Isaisas tomorrow afternoon, recently upgraded from tropical storm to a Cat 1 hurricane.
Just another day in paradise.
Not.
-
lafitte, first of all, that Ravel piece is so, so beautiful. I had never heard it before. Thank you.
You, my friend, are a very eloquent and perceptive writer. Oh yes you are don't argue with me, lol! I simply love your review of ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. Never saw that one! I think I've been consciously avoiding it for a long time, though. As for MADAME BOVARY, I think it's one of Jennifer's best performances. I know a few people for whom Jones is an acquired taste. Your summary of this fine Minnelli film is excellent.
-
1
-
-
On 7/25/2020 at 3:46 PM, laffite said:
Too kind. Too kind. I am humbled reading those old threads. i don't think I could keep up.
I hope you try it. If you do , I DEMAND a review. We can talk about it. It's on Netflix and Criterion channel. Probably elsewhere too. I wonder if TCM ever showed it.
I'm staying away from Annie.
////
TCM did run I KNEW HER WELL -- I think it was part of their Sunday Imports line-up and so that's where I saw some of it.
Your demand is my pleasure - I'll definitely share my thoughts when I am able to watch the whole thing.
Ethel Merman and Betty Hutton both played Annie on stage and film, respectively. From everything I've read about those two, you wouldn't have wanted to get on their bad side IRL.
-
lafitte, it's like I'm reading my work for the first time because my memory is so bad, lol.
Hate to be a downer, but I'm somewhat under the weather. Stress-related tummy issues. I won't elaborate in the interests of good taste. Also, haven't been watching a lot of movies if the truth be told. I fall asleep on my living room couch, wake up with something that might be akin to night terrors, then drift off again. This pandemic, along with everything else going on in the country, plus my own neurotic fears and apprehensions, is sucking all the life out of me! I want to be optimistic and cheerful, and normally nothing would lift my spirits like a bad film, particularly one in the horror or sci-fi category, along the lines of ROBOT MONSTER.
I'm normally enthusiastic about voodoo stories involving shrunken heads so will have to look for these on YouTube. I know they will buck me up!
So please be patient with me.
POSSESSED has some creepy moments with Crawford hallucinating all over the place. I'm always favorably impressed by Van Heflin. Run hot and cold with Raymond Massey, however.
I do remember thinking that Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer looked like they could have qualified for Medicare in ROMEO AND JULIET.
-
lafitte, Andy Griffith as Lonesome Roads was truly casting genius. I've never been able to "see" him in anything else, and certainly not Sheriff Taylor of Mayberry. His natural sinister beetle brows don't help. I was always thinking "this guy could have played a werewolf in some Night Gallery episode". (I'll have to go back on this thread and see who actually thought Griffith was any kind of sexy. Not to my eyes)
Ah, yes, Dick Powell....I remember. YOU NEVER CAN TELL. Delightful little fantasy comedy of a murdered German Shepherd (Dick) reincarnated into a human being so he can solve his own murder! I love this film. Another Powell charmer is IT HAPPENED TOMORROW (Rene Clair, you can't go wrong)
As for WUTHERING HEIGHTS, I probably should have included some remarks about Merle Oberon's performance and as an actress in general. She had an imperious, icy quality in every movie I've ever seen her in. Hard to warm up to. Beautiful but lacking real talent imo. Much like Hedy Lamarr.
Rambles I and II -- brilliant threads, wonderful people.
-
On 7/23/2020 at 3:47 PM, laffite said:
Girls are lucky because they have cowboys to be all a-flutter about. But what about us boys. We don't have much to flutter about. (Or do men flutter? I think they ogle) Cowgirls are few and far between.
Yes, stefania sandrelli was in divorce, Italian Style. I had to look it up, waah. I have not seen her in any other film but she has quite a filmography. If you like foreign films I wish you would watch I Knew Her Well. I would Like to know your take. I think the movie is positively brilliant. I always feel an inner grimace when I use the word brilliant because I'm clearly not brilliant myself Nonetheless, the movie is brilliant anyway.
///
lafitte, trust me -- you are brilliant.
I was thinking about I KNEW HER WELL and then it dawned on me that I had seen bits and pieces of it -- didn't she move into a tiny balcony apartment in Rome? I must see this in its entirety.
As for cowgirls, there's always Annie Oakley. But you wouldn't want to get on her bad side.
-
Hello dere folks!
Time is just an illusion!
Am I the only person in the world who thinks Vanessa Redgrave is annoying as hell in CAMELOT (just ran yesterday on TCM, followed by of all things SOYLENT GREEN, lol)?
-
On 7/23/2020 at 8:53 AM, AndreaDoria said:
Last night Ben and Eddie Muller introduced, Little Shop Around the Corner and I thought, what's Eddie doing here? Evidently it's one of his favorites which made me like him even more. A man who loves my favorite Christmas movie and Too Late for Tears is my kind of guy.
Eddie tried to justify his appearance by telling us that THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER actually has some suspense, lol.
-
On 7/16/2020 at 9:47 PM, laffite said:
I just watched I Knew Her Well (1965), an Italian film starring Stefania Sandrelli, directed by Antonio Pietrangeli. I've seen this three times and I want more. I can't believe how good this is. It seems a sleeper, maybe. No one talks about it. This should be famous. The exposition is variable and loose but it comes around in a big way. This is worthy of Bergman or Antionielli. Pietrangeli died somewhat young, I think; or he may have been more well known. This effort is brilliant. Will somebody please do themselves a favor and watch it. I'm going to do a full review sometime when I stop being lazy.
lafitte, is Stefania Sandrelli the fetching young woman who Marcello Mastroianni takes a fancy to (over his wife with the heavy mustache) in DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE?
-
lafitte, I can't tell you how flattered I am. You're really taking me back to the good "old" days with this! And how we all came together for some good (or naughty) fun in connection with our love of movies. I also struggle with patience in going through the entirety of these pages but curiosity, (as well as nostalgia) is taking the lead and thankfully slowing me down some. Don't remember what I wrote about UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE, but it holds a special place in my heart. Very bittersweet. Authentic. Sandy Dennis is an acquired taste but I do believe this is her best performance.
-
Hmm, BLIND ALIBI, nothing reverberates in my brain pan (which is smaller than the crows that Melanie Daniels talks to Daddy about in THE BIRDS). SMILIN' THROUGH, ditto. I'm only on page 68 of this thread, January 2011. Ah, Miss G.'s Rambles! Ah, lzcutter....(but don't remember RUDYMENTARY) Well, if you want to transmit those reviews, go ahead, I won't stop ya. (I just hope people don't get bored with my childish comments)
The armpits are a Bronxgirl thing I am sorry to say. (ears as well -- the one thing I didn't like about John Garfield)
Someone once sent me a candid photo of Bela Lugosi's underarms as he was going through body movements that Walt Disney used for the demon in that frightening Night on Bald Mountain sequence of FANTASIA.
-
INSIDE DAISY CLOVER.
"The circus is a wacky world!"
(but I have to say that Christopher Plummer is hot, hot hot!)
-
1
-
.
BRONXGIRL'S MOTHER, HENRY FONDA'S HIRSUTENESS, ETC.
in Films and Filmmakers
Posted
Oooh, I want to see this again from start to finish RIGHT NOW, lafitte. You're so whetting my appetite. I didn't even remember Miriam Hopkins being in it! (and she's a favorite of mine)