mrroberts

*The Strawberry Blonde* , my favorite James Cagney film.

In *Superman* , Glenn Ford certainly outacted Mr Brando, but who got the big pay check?

One of the most memorable scenes for me in *White Heat* is when Cody Jarrett walks out of the cabin and up to the back of the car, where he has his "buddy" Parker stashed in the trunk. "Stuffy, need a little air in there, BAM, BAM". Its another example of how ruthless this guy Jarrett is, although it was payback, earlier in the prison Parker had tried to kill him. But at the same time the scene taken out of context is really funny, I wonder if during the filming there was a lot of laughing going on? Another thing I don't believe a lot of people pick up on, Cody's wife Verna is the one who shot Ma Jarrett, lucky for her Cody never found that out. Poor Big Ed took the blame for that one.

Interesting, both Jeff and the "Swede" thought they could hide out working at a gas station. That didn't work out too well.

If I try to watch all of these William Powell movies I'll need to go to rehab . And I see a bunch more prospects for December, going to be some tough decisions to make.

the FLIM-FLAM MAN

Kelly, Miss --- Peggy Dow in *Harvey*

This whole thread has been a very good discussion, its nice to know there are some rational people out there. Sometimes it seems that that lunatics (Cody Jarrett relatives?) are taking over this TCM forum place. *White Heat* is so much more than just a shootum' up gangster flick. Great director, great acting performances, etc. Virginia Mayo gives a very solid supporting performance, if the script had been altered a little more towards her character she could have been amongst the great femme fatalles like in *Out Of The Past* or *Double Indemnity*. And Ma Jarrett played by Margaret Wycherly , the same woman who was Sgt York's mother. Lets not leave out Edmond O'Brien here, he plays "straight man" in *White Heat* but I think he does an excellent job acting with James Cagney. A lesser actor would have just been dominated by Cagney's performance but O'Brien plays off him nicely.

That is one of the few good lines that guy (Chevy Chase) ever had.

I know we have talked this one up in the gangster/noir forum. *Too Late For Tears* is a very good noir, Liz is a very bad girl, Kathie Moffat territory here. And Dan Duryea plays his usual weasly character, always good at that. I have it on a DVD, picture quality is not very good, its looked better on tv. --- Where do I live? You know what happened to Jeff Bailey and the "Swede"?

To get back to the original intent of this thread, I don't see anything wrong with a person appreciating both the high brow and low brow of a subject. This reminds me of the story of President Franklin Roosevelt entertaining the King of Britain at FDR's home in Hyde Park. For an afternoon lunch FDR had a picnic style menu of beer and hot dogs. Apparently the King had a good time of it. Probably some of the King's party was shocked by the sight of such a thing.

Cagney's portrayal of Lon Chaney in *Man Of A Thousand Faces* is one of the very best bio pics of all time. Maybe Cagney couldn't have done his own makeup like Chaney, but his ability to play Chaney's characters was impressive. As for Cagney's Captain in *Mister Roberts*, he was criticized by some for being a little over the top in his role, but Cagney himself said he felt he had to be an exaggeration of the character so as to take some of the hard edge off it. I sometimes find myself answering the phone or door Cagney style, "Yes, Whooo is it?" Ensign Pulver hasn't been on the other end, yet.

In The Stooges short, "Woman Haters", the gal who marries Larry and causes the "problem" for the boys was Marjorie White. I have a picture of her in my Noel Francis group pictures in the CFU forums, she was in the New Movietone Follies of 1930 with Noel. Sadly Marjorie was killed in an auto accident right after working on the Three Stooges short. She would have been a natural to work on other films with them.

When I first read the reference to "Sir Larry" I thought of the other Larry. I often get those two guys mixed up. But I bet Olivier couldn't jam on the violin like Larry the Fine.

I prefer Glenn FORD over CHEVY Chase by a mile.

Having a letter from James Cagney, that is very cool. He comes across as a "lunch pail" actor, especially in the early days when you were under studio contract and came in to work every day and did your assignment. But there were people like Cagney who obviously took great pride in their work and always wanted to do better each time. And his career shows that effort.

Come on people, I am seeing some repeats ---- *The Cincinnati Kid* Edited by: mrroberts on Sep 23, 2011 12:36 PM

Ingrid Bergman was in *Murder On The Orient Express* with Richard Widmark

The poster guy did a nice job here, that probably sold some tickets.

In my life I have probably watched *White Heat* over a dozen times beginning to end, and seen countless scenes from the film in promos, etc. Cagney gives an incredible performance here, but at no time do I have an ounce of sympathy for Jarrett, and I am sure Cagney doesn't want us to. Jarrett is a total psycho, a cold blooded killer who must be stopped, either locked up for good or killed. When G Man Fallon goes undercover and makes "friends" with Jarrett, Fallon sees close up just how evil this guy is. So I can understand his resolve to put this fiend down for good. When Jarrett finally dies (in his blaze of glory) we the audience feel only relief that this man is dead and gone. --- For those who may not know this, when Cagney did his fits of crazy rage, he said he remembered his own childhood and his own father's spells (he had a severe problem with alcoholism). I guess that may make Cagney a "method actor".

Again I say, the choice of Anthony Quinn opposite Kirk Douglas in "Last Train" was a very good one. I only suggest Burt Lancaster as an alternative choice because I would love to see the intense showdown gunfight between Burt and Kirk. As for Burt playing a convincing dark character, dare I mention *Sweet Smell Of Success* ?

*Sherlock Holmes in Washington*

Yeah, but Glenn Ford never played a villain on *Batman* - tv series. Edited by: mrroberts on Sep 22, 2011 5:01 PM

You are right, and I don't really consider *The Big Steal* to be a noir, although you can see where the storyline hints at a noir. The story is really very simple. The army payroll is stolen and Mitchum is the fall guy. Mitchum is chasing the guy who stole it from him, and Mitchum in return is being chased by his own superior officer who is convinced that Mitchum is the thief. To say anymore is to give the ending away to those who haven't seen the movie. The girl gets involved because she is also a victim of the real thief. As you say, no actress (or their agents or studios) wanted to work with Mitchum on this because of the potential bad publicity. Jane Greer volunteered out of loyalty to Mitchum and it also helped get her out of Howard Hughes' dog house. As I said on another thread sometime ago, this whole back story about Mitchum and the making of *The Big Steal* could be used to make a movie.

I think we have discussed this before, I haven't seen every film that either of these guys have ever made. My general impressions of Glenn Ford just aren't of him in comedy, I probably have watched *Experiment In Terror* too many times. I don't know if Dana Andrews ever did anything in a comedy. Many of these guys did do early TV appearances, maybe something there. Like many serious actors Dana might have done well in a comedic role, just never had the chance. Andrews and Ford should have both been in *Airplane*, Andrews (who was in *Zero Hour*, the original Airplane) would have been a natural connection to the eariler film. Edited by: mrroberts on Sep 22, 2011 11:18 AM