mrroberts
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Posts posted by mrroberts
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Captain Widmark would have taken any insubordinate officer or crewman off the ship and left him on an iceberg to play with the seals (and polar bears). He should have done that with Ensign Danno, who panicked and launched the missile.
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Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin used to do these type of missions on a weekly basis and do it in less than an hour.
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I don't have my Cagney bio book right in front of me but if I recall Cagney himself embellished his Captain Morton character to take some of the edge off. He didn't want the guy to just be mean and vindictive, so making him somewhat of a buffoon would accomplish that. Misswonderly brought up the matter of the film being too much like a play. Its funny, while I have seen only a few plays in my life (not much of a play person I guess) I like this film so much and another favorite film of mine is the Clark Gable film , *Command Decision* , which is also like a filmed play. I like Hitchcock's *Dial M For Murder* as well. And so many of the early talkies that many of us like are the same way. So I guess I don't like "plays" unless they're filmed and I can watch them on the screen ? --- I might add that I wish there was some way (maybe in the afterlife) that I could see Fonda and his company do the Mister Roberts play. He always felt that the play was still better than the film.
Edited by: mrroberts on Aug 14, 2013 7:23 PM
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I have been doing a little background reading of a couple of books I have, including bios of Henry Fonda and James Cagney. When Thomas Heggen , the author of "Mister Roberts" was approached about creating a stage play, he specifically wanted Henry Fonda for the part. In fact he said he envisioned Fonda for the character while writing the book. When the play premiered it got rave reviews and Fonda got the Tony award for best actor 1948. The play ran for 3 years. Other productions were created to go on the road, John Forsythe was one of the actors to play Mr Roberts, Fonda himself played on the road for a time. And Tyrone Power played in a production in England that got rave reviews. Power was later considered for the movie (and I think he would have been great in it). Fonda obviously took a great interest in helping fine tune the play over all of this time, which explains why he was so intent that the movie follow closely to the play. Other then the problems between John Ford and some of the movie cast (particularly Fonda and James Cagney) the film production went rather well. William Powell did struggle with remembering lines and was uncomfortable with Ford's style of direction, and Ford made no attempts to help Powell out. But Fonda says he worked with Powell out of respect for the veteran actor. Powell , I am sure appreciated that, but afterwards decided that his acting days were best brought to an end. I have the newest DVD of the movie, it has a bonus feature of Fonda, Cagney, and Jack Lemmon doing a couple of scenes for the Ed Sullivan show using stage sets. The scene with Lemmon confessing to the Captain that he (Lemmon) has been on board for "14 months" is part of that. That line supposedly got some of the biggest laughs in the stage play.
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I have always thought that the Duke's "walk" was just like Broderick Crawford's.
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I want to thank "Vickix33" for her comments. She gets it.
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Wow, I go away for a few days, just get back home to check up on the TCM site and what do I find? A thread for my all time favorite movie, *Mister Roberts* (kind of explains my posting name ). And for good measure, my all time favorite actor , William Powell, is also mentioned here ( this film is not necessarily my favorite Powell film, *Double Wedding* is ). Now let me start off by saying I respect anyones opinions here, but I am disappointed that some are really taking this film to task. So I guess I have to explain myself here, why this film is my favorite. I first saw the movie on TV in the early 60's, just a little kid at the time. My father, who was in the Navy during the war, really liked the film and found a lot to identify with here. Being confined on a relatively small ship, where everyone gets to know everyone else, and stuck doing the everyday routines of taking care of the ship gets very boring very fast. That is the dilemma of the men of "the bucket". And much of the story is how they all deal with that situation (like in Stalag 17). So this is no action film, just a look at the various characters (all somewhat exaggerated for the comedy). With a first class cast it can't help but be pretty good. The film is based somewhat on the very successful stage play and seems somewhat like a filmed play. The big controversy between director John Ford and actor Henry Fonda was over the many changes that Ford wanted to make, and Fonda wanted to stay faithful to the play as much as possible. Ford's leaving the film about half way through greatly eased the tensions on the set. Fonda, and to a lesser extent Powell, play straight man while Cagney and Lemmon get to ham it up somewhat. I believe all play their parts very well. Over the years and as an adult I have a great appreciation for the relationships of the different characters. I never was in the military, but I did work for over 30 years in a steel mill so I can relate to some of the goings on here. And yes, except for the brief appearance of the nurses, this is very much a "guy" film (again like Stalag 17) so I can understand that some women don't find much appeal in this movie. --- MissWonderly , you are still my good friend here but I did have a talk with your "boyfriend" Richard Widmark and he wants to give you a little "ride" down the stairs sometime soon
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In honor of Fred MacMurray day we should all drink a toast to him , Jose Ferrer style.
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Dang it, I thought this thread was going to be about Monty Python skits.
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The Robert Mitchum/Jane Greer film, *The Big Steal* , should be scheduled here, Ramon Novarro has a great supporting role and he practically "steals" the film from the two stars.
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Olivia and Joan were cousins of the man who created the famous deHavilland aircraft used by the British military. Although the girls were born in Japan I don't believe they had any claim to have Japanese citizenship (maybe if they lived their whole lives there they would have been granted it). They were British citizens, and even though they spent much of their lives living and working in the US they were still in fact British, until they would apply for American citizenship. So interestingly what is their current status; dual citizenship, or what?
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I don't understand why *The Hunter* , his last film, ever gets such poor reviews. I think it has a nice blend of action and comedy and allows Steve McQueen to show a little more humanity in his screen persona. And considering he's pushing 50 years of age (and also sadly near the end of his life) he is quite active in the filming. I wish they had *Baby, The Rain Must Fall* on the schedule, a pretty good film and I could see my gal Lee Remick (pretty good herself).
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If I have my geography right Eastern Washington state is west of Montana or Wyoming. So when in Montana if someone says "go west young man" you end up in Washington state. After that you may end up in Hawaii.
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As much as I love Cagney the actor when I watch *White Heat* I give a big sigh of relief when Cody Jarrett gets "terminated". He was truly a monster and I am sure Cagney wanted him thought of in that way, And its a tribute to his acting talent that we the audience see that. Much the same way that I feel about Richard Widmark's Tommy Udo in *Kiss Of Death* , although Udo doesn't die, he just goes to the big house for life.
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Vickix33, its hard to go wrong watching any film with Jack Lemmon in it. As with any actor some films are just ok and others are real gems. Jack always gives a good performance. Thought of mostly for comedy Jack can give a very serious intense performance too. *Days Of Wine And Roses* proves that , it is very intense. And Jack got an early Oscar for his work in my all time favorite film, *Mister Roberts* . Just keep checking the schedule or better yet do a TCM search for Jack Lemmon, it will tell you what films of his are coming up in the next few months.
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BURT LANCASTER!! One of my favorite favorites. As mentioned previously, a number of great Burt films aren't on the schedule but hopefully they can be obtained at a later date. *I Walk Alone* and *CrissCross* are 2 terrific noirs. One of my all time favorite films is *The Train* , a film that really showcases Burt the action hero, he does ALL of his own stunts and even doubled for a few other actors, and Burt was nearing 50 years of age. Get the DVD of The Train, John Frankenheimer does the full audio commentary and tells a lot of details. And I don't care how often TCM airs *Gunfight At The O K Corral* , that is one hell of an entertaining film that I can watch over and over...
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If I heard Ben correctly the other night about half of the stars honored this year are first time honorees. I think that's great.
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I love The Honeymooners (no tv show has ever been better) but it does not belong on TCM in any form. Come on, if TCM starts pursuing a "greater viewing audience" then we can forget about 90% of the current format. The old Carson interviews being shown are to show the people (classic film stars) being interviewed.
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I always enjoy William Holden's performances, he wasn't afraid to play some offbeat characters. I am sure I've seen *Sabrina* on tv not too long ago but can't swear that it was on TCM. But like many of his films its a Paramount and that seems to cause problems with accessability for TCM. Also it seems surprising that its not available on DVD. I did recently get a copy of *Bridges At Toko Ri* , another Paramount picture and one of my favorite films.
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This reminds me of an episode of WKRP In Cincinnati concerning "the dungarees VS the suits". I guess Ben has gone over to the enemy
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Laughton is excellent in this comedy. I know he sometimes is guilty of overacting (remember the thread awhile ago on "Ham" actors) but he does this role just right.
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I still believe that any of the unsolved murders in this story fall at the feet of a certain "MissWonderly"
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I just bought this book (along with a few other titles) and have to say its a good read. I'm sure that most all of the information about the stars discussed is readily available from other sources but its still presented in a nice package here. The author readily admits that choosing the 25 subjects is heavily weighed by his own personal likes. Funny thing, when I first opened the book and looked at the list of 25 names the first thought I had was "No Fredric March". Then I read where the author explains his reasons for his choices and he actually mentions Fredric March (author consistently misspells name as Frederick). The reason for omitting March is that the author is not much of a fan of the actor. I believe that undermines the book somewhat. Fredric March is an excellent example of a "forgotten' star; he was one of the most talented actors ever to appear on screen and I certainly believe he was a very popular actor in his time. But I don't mean to start a big debate here, this book is a personal observation of the author's and he enthusiastically discusses each star of choice and many of the films they appeared in. The trick here is to get a book like this into the hands of a younger person who doesn't know these stars (even Barbara Stanwyck makes the list here) But I can talk about an iconic star like Jimmy (James) Stewart and its surprising how many people today don't know "who the hell he is". Maybe if you mention "Its A Wonderful Life" and they will reply, "Oh, thats that guy's name".
Edited by: mrroberts on Aug 3, 2013 12:04 AM
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Blossom Rock (Grandmama from the Addams Family)
Maureen O'Hara
in General Discussions
Posted
I just remembered that Maureen made an appearance in John Wayne's Iowa hometown this spring (to celebrate his birthday). But I also see that she is staying in the U.S. and living in Boise, Idaho.--- thanks for including the still from *The Long Gray Line* with Tyrone Power. They worked very well together and I really like that film a lot.
Edited by: mrroberts on Aug 18, 2013 2:18 PM