CineMaven
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Posts posted by CineMaven
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<< ( Spit - Take! ) >>
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I think 'Tippi' was the closest blonde to Hitch's ideal: *Grace Kelly* and the audition twisted 'Tippii' any which way but loose to see if she could deliver the Kelly goods. But l see a bit more of a feistiness in her than I saw in Gracie. A bit more "answering back."
I'm sorry other directors didn't see Hitch's 'Tippi' tapes. I think they would have gotten an actress who would have given them a good performance..
Guess the imprimatur of Hitchcock was too strong.
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Oh Marty. < Sigh! > Who knew???
balsam |ˈb?lsəm|
noun
1 an aromatic resinous substance, such as balm, exuded by various trees and shrubs and used as a base for certain fragrances and medical preparations.
Still waters do run deep. < Sigh! >
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Evening JackaaAaay - Silly. You buy the wardrobe to match the bracelet... an excuse to go shopping.
That's right. Silly me. Well...SAKS here I come. No wait. I can't go. Doggone it! You have to be dressed to even to walk into Saks Fifth Avenue. D'Ohhhhh!!!
Hi Sans Fin - When you are at a bowl of mead you use your kovsh as a ladle and then you drink from it.
Mead? Now I've got to travel back to the Renaissance era??? Brother! I still won't have anything to wear with that. What does someone wear for time travel. Geez! If only I looked like Yvette Mimieux.
...Mead is a wine made of honey.
Ohhhh...uhm...I knew that. Okay, red or white. Ladle me a pitcher full please. I'll need it to go shopping. (I hate to shop!)
It could help you release your inner Cossack. It was a presentation piece and it is inscribed: "For valiant and intrepid slashing."
I can't afford to have my Cossack slashed. I just got it nipped and tucked six months ago. Listen, can I get my mead poured into my TCM Mug? I love my mug!
It was not by Fabergé. I believe it was a family heirloom. Her family was White Russian.
Sans Fin...is your real name Anastasia??? And how mesmerizing WAS Rasputin? Did he EVER shave?
Edited by: CineMaven on Nov 29, 2011 7:09 PM - becuz I can't be witty and spell correctly and fight with this board's formatting all at the same time!
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Holy Cow, J.F....S.F. You both have very expensive champagne tastes. I don't have a thing in my wardrobe closet to wear that bracelet with. Can someone send me a string of beads. You know, like the kind Elizabeth Hartman threaded in "A Patch of Blue." I've got lots to match that with. Just send the box to:
Cine Maven
Ditmas Park
Brooklyn, New York
U.S.A., Earth
The Milky Way Galaxy
It'll reach me. I trust our postal system. It's the best.
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'Tippi' was exquisite, and yes, very poised. I've always liked the way she speaks. But it is Martin Balsam who made me do a --double--, no, triple take. He was kind of sexy to me. He leaned in for the kiss, his sonorous voice.
Why have I never seen him that way before? Guess he never had a beautiful woman playing up to him. Ooooh, Marty...
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*He has only one picture of her. She looks very much like a picture I have seen with Rudolph Valentino with a mustache. I have never met her. I do not feel a great urge to meet her.*
I can see why. I think. I'll drop the subject.
*His home is always neat and tidy and he cooks delicious and exotic meals and he bakes wonderful cakes. He appears also to have a kind and gentle nature. I have been told that some people in the neighborhood believed he was gay before I came here.*
A common stupid assumption. You are very lucky to reap all the benefits.
*It makes me happy that you remember that he is taken. I would not wish to have to hurt you.* ;-)
I have been "The Other Woman" several times in my life. But no woman has challenged me to a duel as you have. I shall not go after Capuchin. (I would hate to lose...twice).
*I thank you for the sentiment. I prefer emerald-cut pigeon-blood-red rubies set in 20 carat gold. It is also very nice if they were from Fabergé. They are more discrete and they do not flash in stray light at night.*
I thought they only made eggs. See? That's how much I know. Whew! You are very very very specific. I hope you find this under your Christmas tree. Or better yet...your pillow.
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Can you believe that's Mrs. Iselin. Whoa! Angela Lansbury was quite a confection. Lovely posts Sue Sue!
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> *They weren't sociopaths, just recklessly enthusiastic.*
Well thank goodness. Whew!
> *Most of their jokes were things like teaching me 'one goose, two geese; one moose, two meese' or telling me a certain word was spelled with a 'ph' instead of an 'f' so it wasn't a four letter word, and it wasn't what mom meant when she said not to use the 'f word.'*
Aaaah, harmless grammatical phun. I get it.
> *I wasn't always the butt of their fun. One convinced the other that if she caught a bee, it'd make honey in her hand. Then she convinced her to not tell mom about being stung because mom would be disappointed she had a daughter so stupid she couldn't tell the difference between a honey bee and a stinging bee.*
Ha!!
> *As for parental control -- dad worked long hours. I usually saw him on weekends. Mom worked and had an active social life. I often saw her at breakfast. One time, it was two days before they knew I was in the hospital with pneumonia.*
YIKES!! Poor kid. Leave it to your sisters to tell 'em. My father got home around six. And my mom was (and is) what Society used to call "a housewife." I used to think she watched "I Love Lucy" all day but somehow she got things done.
> *As for my relationship with them -- since we moved to different parts of the country, we started writing regularly and got along great. One has since passed away, and I haven't seen the other since 1972 (she's the one who SansFin says looks Valentino).*
Uhmmmm....you have a sister who looks like this:
*VALENTINA CAPUCHIN???*
> *Picking out a few incidents here and there, it sounds terrible, but in many ways I had a great childhood.*
Well THAT'S good!
> *They taught me to read and write very early so I could help them with their homework..They taught me to do my own laundry, cook my own meals, and vacuum, dust, etc.. It was their way of making me do their chores, but it also means I've never been one of those guys who is helpless without a mother or wife to take care of him.*
Whoa! A self-sufficient man...already broken in? That a gal doesn't have to train? Hey, how 'bout...Oh wait, you're taken. Say, do you have a brother who looks like this:
*CAPUCHIN'S BROTHER: VALENTINO CAPPUCINO*???
> *I can say they made me what I am today -- a neurotic, paranoid misanthrope. At least it's better than being a self-made man with no one else to blame!*
LOL!
Sans Fin...extra TLC for Capuchin tonite! That's a CineMavic order!!
> *Don't tell her that! It makes me very nervous when a woman is extra nice to me -- it makes me wonder what's she buttering me up for.* ;-)
Now why don't men ever trust us when we're nice to them?
Sir, you...are...hilarious!
(Psst! Ask for diamonds, Sans Fin!)
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I could go on about scalp, shoulder, stomach, groin, thigh, and ankle, but you get the idea. I was such a regular customer at the emergency room, the nurses thought I'd moved when I hadn't been in there for six months.
Is it any wonder why I sought refuge in books?
Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my!!! My dear poor Capuchin. This is horrible. Horrible to hear. I knew little brothers were pains in the neck, but I do not mean to suggest they be tarred and feathered. Well...not literally. I am hesitant to pry and ask were your parents not around to protect you. This sounds like more than just childhood scrapes. What's your relationship like now with those --harridans-- gals?
It's a wonder you don't throw a library of books on top of them.
Sans Fin...extra TLC for Capuchin tonite! That's a CineMavic order!!
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THE DRESS IS TATTERED...AND SPOILED!!!
I was ready for a rip-roaring-tawdry-technicolored B-movie good time.
But what I got was a good solid very frank drama from 1957 called "THE TATTERED DRESS." Iron man JEFF CHANDLER stars as cocksure, hotshot New York lawyer James Gordon Blaine. He drinks, he gambles and he goes to bed with women other than his wife, which also includes his client, played by the spectacularly tattered ELAINE STEWART. It might be unethical, but it sure makes him red-blooded and interesting. Ha...he's all the things Perry Mason is not, unless you know something I don't know about Perry and Della.
He wins his cases too. Chandler's strong and gorgeously chiseled physiognomy is worthy of Mount Rushmore and he uses his big booming voice to good (and admittedly, sometimes overblown) effect.
And he walks a little like John Wayne. Chandler's Blaine is the lawyer you hire...when you[/u] are guilty.
I really liked GEORGE TOBIAS and EDWARD PLATT in this film. (Uh..."Mr. Kravitz" and "The Chief" to you denizens of TVLand, or old Baby Boomers like myself). Tobias often played these whacked out ethnic characters in films and I think here is the first time I'm seeing him close to how I imagine his real personality was. He could do serious drama. He was nice and calming. Both Tobias and Platt are great character actors, very natural and serve as a sort of rah-rah cheering section / Greek chorus, respectively, for Chandler.
One of my favorite actresses is JEANNE CRAIN and she plays the supportive wife of Chandler. No, she doesn't have much to do dramatically other than stand-by-her-man. But fellas, this is the girl you want in your corner. She's always such a positive steadying presence in films, in that clean sexy wholesome way.
The Witness who accuses the New York lawyer of bribing her is none other than GAIL RUSSELL. Her life was to come to a sad and tragic end in four years at age 36, and you can see the effects alcohol has had on her once hauntingly beautiful looks. But she does a grand job here as the witness. She withstands a grueling and blistering cross-examination by Chandler and goes toe-to-toe with him, as we see her stress mount question by question. "The Tattered Dress" is about two movies away from the end of her career and the end of her life, but I can still see she's got It. Dear sweet Gail.
But let me get down to brass tacks...it's JACK CARSON's show all the way. Carson plays the town sheriff. And as power does...power corrupts, absolutely. Yes Miss G., he's MacBeth...and also Machiavelli all rolled up in one hail fellow well met. He's jovial and menacing; threatening and sympathetic. When on the witness stand a second time, he talks of how he considers Chandler a friend; even kind of intimates that he knows he's holding onto his glory days as a collegiate grid iron star long past its expiration date. < Sniff! > But he's a back stabbing snake in the grass...and convincing at it too. He's pulling the strings and won't stop at lying, cheating, beating or murder.
I love this film. I don't remember when I saw it the first time. But I haven't seen it in years and years, so the details were just a tad sketchy as I watched it the other nite. In this viewing I was a tad shocked at a coupla things...the frank questioning Chandler gives to his clients, the open marriage of the Restons (Elaine Stewart & Philip Reed):
Chandler: "Mrs. Reston, are you a faithful wife?"
Stewart: "In my fashion."
...And Stewart's openly flirting with Chandler:
Stewart: "I heard you separated from your wife."
Chandler: "How does that concern you?"
Stewart: "You interest me."
Chandler: "That's the reason why my wife left me. I interest other women."
I laughed when she dove into her pool and swam toward and through the under water tunnel to her house to meet Chandler. It looked like she was swimming up the Fallopian tube. I really was aghast when Gail Russell answers her door in her negligee and we cut to Jack Carson buttoning up his shirt and in the background the bedsheets are all disheveled. HUH?! WHA'?? What year is this?
Ross Hunter? Nah, I'd have to say not for me. Ross is really overblown, with lurid color and that schmaltzy music....heavy piano chords. I found "The Tattered Dress" to be more..."Youngblood Hawke." Whether it was "Madame X" or "Where Love Has Gone" or not...I eat it all up. With both hands.
I think everyone should try on..."The Tattered Dress."
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Oh wow. Okay. I look forward to checking it out. Have you ever seen Borzage's...
Probably, right?
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OW!!! Go on...laugh at my pain. Ha. Old fashioned indeed. That's where I get my good morals from.
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Awwww. Poor Capuchin. Poor poor Capuchin. I am the oldest of three. The youngest of us is a little brother. This doesn't speak well for Big Sisters with Little Brothers. Tsk! Tsk! Shame on us Big Sisters.
*BUT*
If it's tough being a Little Brother with a Big Sister...try being the Big Sister who is constantly told you must set an example for the younger ones. (Gr-r-r-r!)
*OR*
Being told that when you finish your chores you can go out to play, only to have the rug pulled out from under you when you've finished your chores (first), and then told to help out the younger ones with THEIR chores.
ACK! I guess every sibling's place in the family is a precarious one. But it IS better than being an only child.
> *"Books couldn't hurt you even when they took you deep into jungles, planted you in front of rampaging dragons, or sent you into orbit around strange planets, and I desperately needed those safe adventures."*
In Capuchin's case, I guess there really is no frigate like a book.
I am looking forward to checking out these three films to take my mind off of chores...and reading:
*"SHIELD FOR MURDER"* - A crime drama starring EDMOND O’BRIEN & JOHN AGAR
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G60pM9zc_4I&feature=related*
*"GREEN FOR DANGER"* - A fantastic murder mystery starring ALISTAIR SIMS & TREVOR HOWARD
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb5ooEfJKM4&feature=related*
*"THE EVIL MIND"* - starring CLAUDE RAINS & FAY WRAY: *http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5kb-HMFKhk&feature=related*
Now that I'm a grown-up (well...an adult, anyway) I can do what I wanna do with no little brothers around to rat me out.
Nyah!
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> *Me, too!! And I used to be a major book worm, so I sometimes marvel over my lack of enthusiasm to read these days, with a few exceptions. I always had my nose in a book as a child and teenager.*
I came to my reading like this. I used to talk a lot in class. ...To class mates, not to answer questions. My report card in the third grade had remarks from the teacher about my talking during class. Needless to say I caught it at home. Ow!
The next marking period, in the remarks section of my report card, my teacher, Miss Hadley, wrote to my parents: *"_____ is now an avid reader."*
> *Brilliant! I look forward to seeing this, thanks...and I imagine I'll feel the same about the Lode-r.* ;-)
*HA!!!! Ha!!! :^0*
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Gee, I haven't read a film book in AGES. (Man, I haven't read a BOOK in ages). Attention span somewhat diminished though I do have the quiet time now that I'm retired. Hope you enjoy the Walsh biography.
A coupla months ago you told us about a Karloff movie called *"NIGHT KEY"* where I had to hurdle over my own bias of seeing my dear sweetie pie Sammykins be such a mean guy. Well, I'd like to suggest something for you (and everyone) to check out if time and/or inclination permits.
It's Karloff again. And before he worked with Anna Lee in *"BEDLAM" (1946)* he worked with her ten years earlier in a film I've been enjoying called *"THE MAN WHO CHANGED HIS MIND."* This film was made in England (this is the British title) and called in America: "THE MAN WHO LIVED AGAIN."
Karloff is a scientist who starts off with good intentions, but when the medical community scoffs at his claims to be able to...
Well, you know. Also stars John Loder. (Frankly, I think Karloff's experiments should have been on Johnny boy). Lots of great shots in this film thanx to the director.
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIQAuYAs6Po&feature=related*
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Awww, what a nice movie. Easy, breezy. The drunk fisherman started to wear on me a little, but it was great to see Spence and Joanie. Yes, by the time they made "Father of the Bride" they were an old married couple; all secrets revealed. Nice and comfortable with each other as a great pair of slippers. But here...here are their beginnings. Spicy, sexy...and chewing gum. She was a good foil for him. Their banter was good.
Tracy: "Do you realize I never knew how much I liked you until you gave me the air."
Bennett: "I guess it's the same with girls. They never fall hard 'till they're dropped."
(There's something very Grimesy about those lines...)
Tracy chastely kisses Bennett.
Bennett: "Now THAT'S the way to kiss."
Tracy: "Sure, I'm acting like a gentleman."
Bennett: "Yeah. Acting."
The wedding party scene would probably be worthy of Rohanaka's movie food thread. And I liked how Pop got right in front of the movie camera and invited the audience to drink.
I was astounded by the bank robbery. What? Really? I chuckled when I thought of the finesse the heist was handled in "The Asphalt Jungle." I liked in the beginning how Tracy interacted with everyone. Walsh had the action/activity moving moving ever moving forward; it'd rest on Joanie and Spencer...and that back to activity. For me it was seeing Tracy with (a blonde) Joan Bennett that was the lynchpin for me. I liked their "Strange --InnerTube-- Interlude" scene.
Looking over Raoul Walsh's IMDB entry of films, I've seen:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
They Drive By Night (1940)
They Died With their Boots On (1941)
The Horn Blows At Night (1945)
Silver River (1948)
The King and Four Queens (1956)
Band of Angels (1957)
The Naked and the Dead (1958)
and of course, White Heat (1948)
Walsh can be gritty...but he can be playful as well. Glad I saw it.
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Simply stunning!
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You read my mind Grimesy me boy. And I was trying so hard to be a good little good little good little girl:
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THE ANATOMY OF A TATTERED DRESS
I've been watching "THE TATTERED DRESS" ( 1957 ) and I've found a bunch of similarities between this film and "ANATOMY OF A MURDER" ( 1959 ). Not an exact replicant of plot, mind you, but pretty similar.
THE HOT SHOT NEW YORK LAWYER:
Cocksure and never loses.
THE ATOMIC BOMBSHELL VICTIM:
These gals give their husband sleepless nights...in more ways than one. Wouldn't you if you looked like that? Can't help it, the girl can't help it.
THE JEALOUS HUSBAND:
They protect what's theirs...even if they can't hold her. Just why IS she seeking other men, hmmmm??
FRIEND AND PROTECTOR OF THE MURDER VICTIM:
They live vicariously through their misguided friendship. What IS behind that?
THE FAITHFUL WIFE(Y):
She can't quit him...even if she wants to. (Arden is faithful to Jimmy Stewart, who in this case is not a hotshot NY lawyer).
THE TRUE FRIEND & LOYAL SIDEKICK:
Whether a defendant or soused, he's a pal 'till the end. They don't make sidekicks like these guys anymore.
THE SURPRISE WITNESS:
Oh boy oh boy, can she bust the case WIDE OPEN!! Just what lies beneath the Brunette?
And now, members of the jury, I give you..."THE TATTERED DRESS."
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I just got an e-mail from my movie mentor friend, Robert, who wrote me his take on "LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN." Here's what he said:
"I just saw "Letter..." for the umpteenth time, and it sure meets my two main criteria for Masterpiece. One, it works every time, stimulates and moves us. Two, each time more is revealed, it ain't skin deep, but then neither is real beauty.
My English disc has one of those video essays by Tag Gallagher which packed a lot of interesting observations into its twenty-three minutes. He starts off by reminding up that, except for the opening and closing with Stefan, everything we see is in Lisa's letter. We knew that, but he then suggests, and this clarifies a lot of things, that we do not see Lisa as she was or as others saw her when she was twelve, or twenty, or even when she was thirty. We see her only through her own eyes as she is writing the letter. Because it is in so many ways easy to identify with Lisa, the romanticism that sweeps up audiences is hers, not Ophuls'! Thus, so many people over the years have seen this as a romantic film rather than the tragedy it really is.
I'll never forget the first time I saw "...Madame de..." at the Bleecker Street Cinema. My date and I met a friend of hers from work in the lobby who asked, "Have you seen this before?" "No." "Oh", she went on, "It's so romantic, but I love it!" Well, the first thing I wonder about is, Why did she have to apologize for liking something romantic? But in retrospect, the point is that it is no more a romantic film than "Letter...", and it is just as much a tragedy of a woman entrapped by her romanticism.
Truth to tell, Ophuls contributes to the illusion of romanticism with those gorgeous sweeping camera movements, not to mention the beautiful dresses. But he was no dummy. If you make a movie that is obviously a tragedy, no one will go see it.
I understand why Fontaine has never been one of your favorites. Though I have always admired her work in the Hitchcocks, Jane Eyre, Ivy, etc., I must say that she has never excited me, and I think you know exactly what I mean.
When I first realized, probably after one of my viewings of this, what a good actor Louis Jourdan was (I know he's still alive, but has been retired for some years) and not just a pretty face, i looked upon all the films I'd seen him in with new eyes. This performance was not a fluke.
- R."
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Hmmmmmmmmmm. You had me at --"check the whiskey"-- uhmm, ''hello.''
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Yo! You think we're going to catch all Ophuls has to give us in one pass?
Uh-hunh.
The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread
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Posted
So you thought there wasn't going to be middle ground for me with the film. That ended up being accurate. I didn't dislike it, really. It's definitely a very harsh film..
Funny, I thought this film would rank higher with you; tough, hard-hitting. Ha! That just shows to go ya how much I know about your film tastes. To be honest, I don't care so much about how you rank them...but more about what your thoughts are about the films you've watched. (I'll ask you about the others in a minute).
I liked the message behind it, although I didn't go for the "Garbo" ending.
The "Garbo" ending...what didn't you like about it? I thought it made the most sense in fitting with the plot and the loudest statement in fitting in the universe of being Woman. It worked for me. Why didn't it work for you?
I just didn't find the meat of the film to be all that entertaining. I loved the opening and the message, the very most. It's definitely a Woman film. It's very strong and quite good on that level. I haven't seen a film similar to it. Although, this is how I always picture some Garbo flicks being. But I'm guessing the Garbo films are nowhere near as harsh as Safe in Hell.
HA! You didn't go for the Garbo ending...and the meat of the film wasn't all that entertaining for you. But you did like the movie. Ohhkay. The meat of the film, for me, was where all the juice and nuance was. We got the bookends (the bread) of what the plot was. Everything in the middle added to the flavor of such a bitter sandwich Wild Bill presents to us. (Why am I thinking of Dagwood Bumstead and his mile-high sandwiches? Not now, T. not now).
You're right Grimesy, Garbo films are nowhere near as harsh as this one. They're very romantic with Garbo's self-sacrificial heroines. The films are glossy. The films are not Wellman's. In fact, from what I can glean of your tastes, I'd say stay away...stay far far away from GARBO films. You will not like them. Not to be sexist, but they're more for women's tastes and the perspective of that universe.
The ending is martyrdom. Very "Joan of Arc." It's just the cause is woman, not country.
The word "martyr" hints at a different connotation for me. But I will say Dorothy's self-sacrificial gesture is very powerful to me a la Bette Davis. She was true to herself, even if it meant death.
The tone is very good. You get a real sense of a woman being trapped in an ugly world.
Nicely put. And...she was.
And it's neat that Wellman himself is getting known for not just G.I. Joe and The Ox-Bow Incident, sterling films as they are. He really did a LOT of "women's pictures". He cut his teeth on them as a director.
I?ve got to look over his filmography again. What better way for man to know himself than through woman.
SAFE IN HELL IS SPOILED
I'll say...and I will spoil it even more in my post following this one.
Woman is seen as just a sexual object by almost every man in the film and the one good man doesn't think well enough of her to stay by her side. He's in love with the sea (his job). So the woman's answer to man's attempt to force her into unwanted sexual submission is to choose death. If the one good man she loved actually loved her equally, she'd fight to live. But he didn't care about her to that level.
I see it just a tad differently, re: "the one good man." Her choice of death was specific to the prospect of being in the police chief's clutches. I think she wanted to live and was happy when her lover came back for her. I suspect Sailor Boy will be devastated to know she died. Who knows if he'll bother to investigate WHY she died, when the Carribbean court had already exonerated her. (If so, I'd like to think he'd go after the chief...but that's a story in my imagination alone. Back to the sandwich at hand): Sailor Boy (aka one good man aka the wooden actor Donald Cook) loved her enough to hide her; put her on ice...in Hell. When the storm blew over, he came back to get her. I would say if Sailor Boy "really" loved her, he'd have married her from the get-go. I can't explain it for the life of me, but somehow back then, if you married a girl, she was protected. (I don't get how marrying a girl and going away protects her from those streetcars named desire. Don't ask me...danged if I know. Robert Young marries Laraine Day in "Those Endearing Young Charms" and he can go off to war knowing she's safely Mrs.....). ???
I remembered you mentioned "Man" and "Woman" in the discussion of "LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN." In a very very very very general sense (and I mean this in a very general sense), the universe of "Man" and "Woman" is very different:
* Men Live To Work
* Women Live to Love.
(This is such a generalization, but I can't think of another framework to express the difference in genders. Again, this is only my opinion). In the framework of her universe, MacKaill?s only choice was to protect her sanctity; even as a prostitute, the man she chooses is her choice. And she just didn't want that police chief...under any circumstances.
I liked her. She had a great fight to her. I liked how she played explosive and "I don't give a darn" while also projecting longing and disappointment.
< Sigh! > When I grow up...