mrroberts
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Posts posted by mrroberts
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I remember "Colossus" from its initial release, its a very good film. (Look for William Schallert , Patty Duke's dad) Although "Colossus" is dated by its 60's technology (which might be considered state of the art when the film was made) the theme is timeless. Man can't face up to the pressures of dealing with the consequences of his ability to wage modern nuclear war. Think of earlier films like" Fail Safe" , "Dr Stranglove ", etc. So we empower a computer to do the dirty work for us, now we can sleep at night. Unfortunately the computer takes its mission to a higher level, the only way to protect man from himself is to control him, put him on a short leash. Its "big brother" to the extreme. So what does man do now, the machine is the ruler and man doesn't like that either. The 80's movie "War Games" is along the same storyline, we let a computer run the national defense system. But when a teen computer geek unintentionally hacks into the system he fools the system into believing that a "game" is reality. The computer is ready to wage all out thermonuclear war against the Soviets. The lesson is simple, if man is to survive long term he has to face up to his responsiblities. He must discipline himself to not be so destructive to himself, or the environment I might add.
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Fox Movie Channel used to show its oldies on the early morning time slots, like at 6 am est (meaning 3 am west coast time). Lately they have moved ever more away from showing "oldies" but it appears that Fox is making stuff more available to TCM. So keep up your hopes, put it in suggest a movie at TCM, probably the best chance of seeing the film get some air time. They have shown *Up The River* (featuring Bogart and Spencer Tracy) in recent years, so TCM apparently can access these Fox films.
Edited by: mrroberts on Oct 27, 2012 5:48 PM
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The Night Gallery episode that Sepiatone is thinking about is one of the three stories in the pilot show (considered a TV movie). That show also has Joan Crawford in a rather good role as the wealthy blind woman who "buys" a few hours of sight only to have her sight time right at the moment of the great east coast blackout. Poor Joan has her eye sight, but everything in her apartment goes dark. By the time that the morning light comes up, her vision starts to go away again. And that Joan episode was also Steven Spielberg's first director's job.
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I actually have memory of Gary Collins on the tv show "The Wackiest Ship In The Army" along with Jack Warden (now there was a terrfic actor). Funny how you get the tv show cast in your head and later see the actual movie with different people and it seems strange. Gary Collins played the Jack Lemmon part rather well if I remember. I see by the IMDb that Gary Collins actually appears in *King Kong vs Godzilla* , have to remember that and look for him next time I watch that "classic".
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Finance says that Richard Boone was WAY over top in the movie *Vicki* . I understand that a guy named Paladin would like a word or two with Finance out in the street.
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I would like to add Barbara Steele in the Italian epic *Black Sunday* . And does anyone remember Jack Palance's performance as *Dracula* in an early 70's movie?
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I should add this, my previous comment is not meant to disrespect any of the other acting "Powells" out there.
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Assuming you do mean WILLIAM Powell, I 100% agree. He's the best!
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*Vicki* is a decent film, but I rate it higher because of the two ladies, Jeanne and Jean.
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William Holden's acting did improve a great deal in his first ten years as an actor. The fifties was definitely his prime time as an actor and in his appearance. While he certainly maintained his acting chops in his later years he did "age" considerably. Sadly I guess his lifestyle had a lot to do with that, he looked considerably older than his 64 years at his death. The circumstances of his death were very tragic, but it shouldn't detract from his terrific career. My favorite Holden film is *Bridges At Toko Ri* . Great film and one of his finest performances.
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When I watch *The Birds* I am always intrigued by the reactions of the different characters when they are placed into these unusual situations. The classic one is the woman in the diner who gets hysterical and blames Melanie (Tippi ) the outsider for causing all of this , "You're the one, you're evil!" Hitchcock uses the birds as a MacGuffin to have us watch the people panic and get all irrational.
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For those who don't know of this, Jeanne Crain's granddaughter has a nice site called "The Jeanne Crain Website" , worth checking out.
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Some people just don't value fun very much.
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My first thought was about the poor young guy in *Rope* , who gets strangled to death in the opening seconds of the film.
His name was Dick Hogan and ironically he appeared in quite a number of films, but *Rope* was his last film, he retired after that. (Did his last part intimidate him that much?) But my nomination goes to Noel Francis for her role in *I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang* . Her one brief scene as "Linda" made me a lifetime fan of her's. -
If this question is limited to TCM viewings the answer must be *North By Northwest*
, which by the way I enjoy watching. -
Is it just coincidence that my favorite Cagney film, *The Strawberry Blonde* , and my favorite Bogart film, *High Sierra* , have the same director? Perhaps, or maybe its more than coincidence. And they are two rather different films, just showing the range of Mr Walsh.
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Hill House from *The Haunting* (only the 1963 original film). In keeping with the spirit of October. Think of the interesting sleep overs you could have with your friends, and maybe your enemies.
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That's CHIEF Inspector Dreyfus. ---- Mr Lom could play a very nasty villain as in *Night In The City* or in one of the Man From UNCLE 2 part episodes (The Five Daughters Affair) and yet be a very funny fellow as Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films. As others have said, his work as Dreyfus often outshines Sellers' role as Clouseau. And his "Phantom Of The Opera" compares well with the other versions. Herbert Lom was definitely a talented actor . RIP Chief Inspector
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Well, I'm going to bump this thread back up to the top again. There's been some serious Widmark talk on another thread. So I will try this. I want to see Richard Widmark get a Star Of The Month tribute sometime in the next year or so. I realize it may take sometime for TCM programming to get things lined up but it appears that the Fox films are getting more readily available so maybe it can all come together. Richard Widmark had a long and very productive film career and many people would say he is one of those underrated actors who sometime in his career could have gotten a couple of more Oscar nominations at the least. So we got a month (well deserved too) for Joel McCrea , how about one for Mr Widmark?
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I agree Fred. The month doesn't have to be all shock films, although I look forward to seeing a few of them. The usual nice variety in the schedule for October.
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People always get hung up on the definition of "film noir", I believe that a film classifies as a noir if it has certain qualities, but many noirs have several of these qualities while lacking others. So the films that have say 6 out of 10 aren't as noir as the ones that have 8 out of 10. And a precious few films may have all 10. So where does one draw the line? We all have our standards for that. Most of Widmark's early films fit the noir standard for me. *Kiss Of Death* , *The Street With No Name* , *Panic In The Streets* , and even *Pickup On South Street* are basically crime dramas but all have a lot of noir elements. *Night And The City* and *Road House* are more pure noir in my opinion. They have that element of a character who seems doomed right from the start; Harry Fabian is a rather pathetic character who is always looking for the score and always comes up short. When its small time stuff the consequences aren't too bad, but Harry goes for the big score and we know he's signed his own death sentence. In *Road House* Jefty starts out as a decent guy but he goes off the deep end (a very good Widmark character here) and we know that someone is going down, just a question of who. In "Pickup" I agree that the ending of the film takes it out of the noir setting with its nice, happy ending. Either Skip or Candy could have gotten bumped off, it wouldn't really matter which one. Speaking of Widmark and noir films, both *The Bedford Incident* and *Madigan* (the original movie) fit the noir category for me.
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I have to get back to viewing these threads more often. Talking here about two of my favorite movie subjects; Richard Widmark (fav "bad guy") and one of his best films *Pickup On South Street* , which is one of Jean Peters best films too. I believe they both enjoyed making the film and working together. Somewhere I read that Widmark (who liked to work fast, quick rehearse, do the scene, move on) liked that "Prompt Pete" was always well prepared and on time to do the shot. The complete opposite of Marilyn Monroe; Widmark liked Marilyn and helped her out a lot on *Don't Bother To Knock* , but probably wouldn't have wanted to work with her again. Back to Widmark, I think he was always a fascinating actor who put a little something extra into his work. That's why he was such a great villain, or an anti-hero like Skip McCoy. The little interview with him talking about Kazan is great, just for seeing Widmark as himself and talking. He was always "shy" about interviews and did few of them. I always thought he would have been great on the Carson Tonight show, he seemed to be a lot like Johnny and Carson could have gotten Widmark to open up in an interview. Maybe Widmark would have enjoyed it enough to be a "regular" guest like Jimmy Stewart. I have long wanted to see the *Madigan * tv movies again, they got a lot of praise when they first aired and Widmark was offered a second season but he declined. Richard Widmark is always a worthy candidate for a SUTS day or even a whole month tribute. Misswonderly, how about a "Joel McCrea" type campaign for Mr Widmark?
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Dianembarb --- just a fellow TCM viewer saying welcome to the message board. Don't be discouraged by some of the negative talk on these threads, there are a lot of very decent people here who bring interesting comment and insight for the rest of us. Hopefully you will visit from time to time and participate in the discussions. You can get some helpful recommendations on what movies to watch for (that is movies you may enjoy) and you can go to the suggest a movie section and nominate a film you want to see.
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I have never seen the film *Silver Lode* , but it sounds like a good one. The description you give reads like a variation of *High Noon*
His name was Dick Hogan and ironically he appeared in quite a number of films, but *Rope* was his last film, he retired after that. (Did his last part intimidate him that much?) But my nomination goes to Noel Francis for her role in *I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang* . Her one brief scene as "Linda" made me a lifetime fan of her's.
Sex and Nudity!
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Now that was a dirty trick