CineMaven

NICE GUYS FINISH FIRST: I love my boys-next-door...my frat boys. The collegiate type. They?re nice and friendly and playful. These are just a few of my favorites: Timothy Bottoms, Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, Richard Carlson, Jeffrey Lynn, Wayne Morris, Richard Greene, Van Johnson, James Stewart, Henry Fonda. These are my cutie pies...my little puppies. But sexy... DAZZLING PER-****-SHUN: I know. I know. It?s so rude to stare...but I can?t help it. I love these guys for their good looks. They are so good looking, do you doubt they stepped down from the heavens? I just want to be with them, look at them, bask in their reflection. (I think of footage from the ?Gone With the Wind? movie premiere. Look at Lombard on Gable?s arm). These men are, simply put, perfect: Tyrone Power, Robert Taylor, George Hamilton, John Gavin, Stewart Granger, Harry Belafonte, Tony Curtis, Robert Redford, Rock Hudson, Laurence Olivier (?Wuthering Heights?), Cary Grant, Louis Jourdan, Montgomery Clift. You scoff at my choices? You mock my shallow adoration? Who doesn't want good conversation, romance, moonlight dinners or week-ends in a snow covered cabin? Tyrone Power calls you for a weekend in Carmel, and you?re turning him down? Not me. These men are gorgeous. Sexy? Hmmm that?s another story. Next up: Sexy beasts...

CineMaven: I feel so sorry for Claire inside that coach. I was more affected by the psychological suicide of offering her shoulder to Mrs Malloy. Claire is so beaten down at that point in the story, a scarlet woman in a coach, surely she must have known she would be refused. Her sigh of disappointment while looking out the window is as much an acknowledgment of forlorn hope as actual rejection. I came home a little while ago and turned to TCM and saw that very same seen I saw on YouTube this morning with Claire offering the canteen. Whew! I haven't seen "Stagecoach" in a very long time. I know...I must give up my card carrying Maven membership b'cuz of course, without doubt, this film must be put in a time capsule for future generations.

Swell...see how easy it is to bamboozle a man? Sexy, isn't it? And by the way...ponder this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_wUPZLs7BE&feature=related This might be more up your alley, MovieMan.

'Scuse this sidewinding sodbuster for just one extremely brief observation. John Wayne hands Claire Trevor the canteen which she drinks from. She offers it to the crusty ol' gent who brusquely says no. Claire's reaction as she sort of slinks down in her seat is so subtly done. She's been hurt. That's my girl!

Hi there Soo... Great commentary on "Moguls and Movie Stars." It's so easy to put something down and some can't see the forest for the trees; but you explained all the reasons this mammoth effort by TCM is worth a view. I've been enjoying this series. I believe Part 5 will be repeated tonite so get your vcr/dvr/dvd player ready. Very nice review. Thanx!

Nah...it was a toss-up between Slim Pickens and Chill Wills. But I loved Chill in "LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN" and in "GIANT" so he made the cut. Hey...you make your own sexy beast list!! And leave me to my fantasy. If I'm not mistaken...you're a Doodles Weaver groupie, right?

Maybe I was focused too much on Doris in "Romance on the High Seas." When I think of her in "Silk Stockings" all I can see is STEREOPHONIC SOUND! It's been a long time since I've seen it. Again maybe I was busy looking at Cyd Charisse, which is another way of saying that maybe I don't find Janis sexy in the same way I think of Doris or Cyd. Rose Marie??! Men! Always wanting sexy funny and taking funny sexy for granted. ( > sigh! < ) To your credit, the producers did down play Janis' sex appeal in "Romance..." Look at all those crazy high collared outfits they put her in; and then in those curls in that upsweep hairdo she had. Had they let her look va-va-va voom, it might've blown Doris (at that point in her career) out of the wa- ter. (Thought Doris was sexy in "Love Me Or Leave Me"). With Doris in "Romance..." they were introducing the new girl on the block-a solid little blonde bundle of energy. (Love her in "My Dream Is Yours"). Also liked the fact that I betcha Doris had something to do with putting Janis in her movie a decade or so later with "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" where another one of my faves had a small role as a society matron throwing a party: Margaret Lindsay. For the Sexy Actors list I'm compiling for this treatise, which I hope to share with all of you before the day's end, I'm just about all over the psychological map with my reasons for finding actors like Douglas Dumbrille, Slim Summerville, S.Z.Sakall, Rondo Hatton, Chill Wills, Gabby Hayes, and Charles Laughton, sexy beasts. Hmmm...I'm feeling kinda tingly just thinkin' about my boys. Women! Ain't we fickle?

MOVIEMAN writes: If we are getting into what is sexy I might have some ideas but I'd love to hear what the ladies think in addition to Ben Johnson. MISS GODDESS replies: I'll have to think about it. I can rattle off WHO I think is sexy, but to analyze WHY may take some actual thinking...and this is something I never think I have to think about...I just feel it! JACK FAVELL chimes in: To me there is a big difference between merely good looking and sexy. And some people are sexy to me because they have a brilliant mind, or because they move well, or because they are talented...I think I have to have some kind of compassion for the person to really find them sexy. I don?t know why. It's really tough to figure out WHY you find someone sexy.If you line up ten movie stars in a row, I would be more likely to pass over the best looking man, for the man who has character, or the man with depth or warmth.? It?s said our movie stars are like American royalty. Mythology buff that I am, I see them as gods and goddesses alighting from Mt. Olympus and vaporizing onto the silver screens of movie palaces near you. They?re made perfect by primping, pampering and grooming. Whatever genetics they brought with them from North Carolina or Sicily...Sweden, Cadiz, Ohio or South of the Border were heightened to the nth degree by the magic of Max Factor, Adrian or George Hurrell. Apparently, there?s all kinds of sexy as illustrated by everyone's very interesting posts on this personal and subjective topic. I surmised a few things from you all: * What men find sexy in women is different from what women find sexy in women * What women find sexy in men is different from what each other woman thinks is sexy in men * Women can be femininely or masculinely sexy (There's a difference between Marilyn and Bacall) * Sometimes the most stunning of beauties (i.e. Hedy or Tyrone) may not necessarily be sexy * Ava-Gloria-Sophia-Marilyn are constants in the sexy firmament * Men may not be entirely comfortable discussing what actors they find sexy I'm a very visual person. And I am attracted to attractive people. Or should I say, I'm attracted to people who I find attractive. The second tier of my human attraction is to a person who is smart, kind, funny, moral, ethical, clean, honest, has character and all the rest of those intangible goodies that makes us look like a good person for wanting someone with those intangible qualities. But that ain't sexy. So here I turn my gaze to men...actors...sexy actors...or more accurately actors who I...for me...IMHO...find sexy. Confusing? HA! You should be inside my head. But no worries, I have Freud on speed-dial. THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE SEXY. OH...AND THEN THERE'S SAMUEL S. HINDS...

Hmmmm...let's imdb her and look over her filmography; see if she didn't. She wasn't a real vamp, you know. She wasn't the curvaceous buxom type so that might have something to do with it. Let's both check. Maybe in "The Man Who Came to Dinner"?? I liked her round the girl way in "Nora Prentiss." Awww...just count me a fan.

May I chime in? Good point, J.F. I think her "Oomph" status was due to her saucy attitude as well as her killer looks. She didn't really do the sexbomb thing. She was kind of a pal to a guy..albeit a pal with lustrous hair, long legs and a coppery voice that wouldn't quit. She also looked like she knew the score...rarely if ever, played a wide-eyed babe in the woods. But ohhhhh brother...a babe indeed. Still compiling my list of (IMHO) sexy actors. Prerequisites include tall, dark, handsome. Athletic, swarthy, heavily testosteroned, with five o'clock shadows...and a bit on the mean side. Rough. HIM: "You'll take it and like it!" ME: "Purr....." You know...the kind you won't bring home to Father. Edited by: CineMaven on Nov 30, 2010 9:19 AM

Thank you TCM. I am enjoying this documentary very much.

Dot, of course. She's a great example. She is very sexy in the Douglas Sirk films, but also projects longing and pain (rather like Ava, only in her own way). Yes, you?re right Miss G., It is Dorothy Malone. And you?re right again when you talk of her pain and longing. The YouTube video I selected (Britney Spears & Douglas Sirk) might seem so silly and frivolous... but I think it was well done and the editor selected scenes that revealed her sexuality as well as her longing for a man she?ll never have. (She also wears my favorite outfit...the plaid blouse and pedal pushers; I?m a plain and simple maven). Your screencaps are excellent examples too. Grimesy, I hope you catch more of their work.

Before I give out with my very humblest of opinions on those sexy men, I have to ask my TCM fellas this: * TCM will honor her on December 7th. * What worked for Joan Bennett going from blonde to brunette worked for her going from brunette to blonde. * Why didn't SHE make the cut? The blonde. The blonde!!! At the very least for this film: An inquiring Maven wants to know!!! Heads will roll...toads will croak! Don't make me get Hope Emerson on your case!!!!

Oooh! You do know your movie actors! I had to look him up. I love his wavy hair! Naaaaah, I'm shallow. I know my handsome movie stars. Hmm...hair, another prerequisite for my definition of a sexy man. Thick, dark. Enough to pull.

>Ha ha! Good choices! I thought for sure someone was gonna say Ralph Cramden. But he doesn't count, he's just a character, not a real Ralph. Hey, you're dealing with bonafide movie buffs here! Ralph Cramden, indeed. We know the difference between fantasy and reality. ...Sometimes. Oooh, let me add Ralph Cooper before I get drummed outta the NAACP. He wasa handsome devil.

You're right Jackaaaaaaaaay, I cannot think of an unsexy Ralph. Ralph Morgan. Ralph Meeker. Ralph Fiennes. He pronounces it Rafe, but a Rafe(r Johnson) by any other name would be as sexy. Passing through Hartford, now. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ooooh, my friend just told me that Leslie Nielsen passed away at eighty-four years of age. Sorry to hear that. He had a great second act!!! :-( http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20445526,00.html

"And I think I need to add Woody Strode and Robert Montgomery to my list... maybe I do have the same sexy list as you and Maven?" :-) If it's not too early...on a Sunday morning...to talk about who is sexy...I'd like to chime in a couple of 'Maven'ish thoughts. As...soon...as...I...can...get...it...together. Seeeeee, that's what happens when I think of Woody, shirtless and barking orders in "Sgt. Rutledge." Uhmmm...I need a cigarette break. I'll be back.

"I am having vapors and breathing heavily just having you mention the three names together! le pant, le pant..." - << (( JACK FAVELL )) >> ha-ha! boy, do i know my ramblers or what.

I'm glad Bronxgirl. He's a riot. It's good some time for some of us to come off of our "high horse" about The Cinema, and just see the crazy wonderfulness of classic films. :-)

"Thank you, Tall T, but soon I may get paid NOT to write so much about Ford." Oh no you don't. Please don't take that gig. "Perish THAT thought and bury it!!!!!!" DING! Round 8,384.

Hiya Rohanaka...hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanxxgiving. "Oh, but there are so many, many, many things I love about "My Darling Clementine"...I can get quite tiresome to discuss it. I think it's a cowboy tone poem. An old west song. It moves like music, it's so lyrical I forget this is actually a treatment of the "OK Corral" legend. I love that Ford throws away literal sticking to facts and gives us a work of art instead. If you can forget about history, and bask in the authenticity of the characters...and the texture of old west life that is completely believable yet touchingly idealized...you can get lost in a master- piece..." - << (( MissGoddess )) >> Whoa. < Ahem! > Now let me get this straight. Am I to understand that in your real life...your personal life...away and apart from this Message Board...you do NOT earn a living as a professional writer?

Babble? Ramble? Nope. Just another quite wonderful and thoughtfull write-up from you, this time on Richardson. (Ooooops! I almost called him: "Ralphie boy!") I remember really liking him in "Greystoke..." but I confess I am woefully ignorant about his career, other than two...maybe three films. As for sitting at his knee, he probably would have told you "don't be silly dear girl. Sit down in the chair," poured you a spot of tea with brandy and answered your every question, b'cuz you don't come off as a silly schoolgirl, but a real student of film and psychology. (Too much? Okay...you sitting with Jack LaRue or Ben Johnson is a different story! You're having the vapors and breathing heavily). All we can do with all of those great actors we love & admire is to look at their performances, read their biographies, watch their interviews and just scratch the surface in attempting to cull from those sources, who the real person is underneath. Your writing is making me ever so curious about Sir Ralph Richardson. And that is a testimony to him and to you.

I'm having a great time in Massachusetts and "Meg Ramsey" is about to have its New England premiere. We have lots of...of... Wait! Uhmmmm...Janis Carter was in "My Forbidden Past" and my friends here don't have TCM... < ( Gulp! ) > :-( :-( :-( < ( Sigh! ) > It was great reading many of the thoughts on this Ava thread. I'd say she's kind of gotten short shrift over the years, but again thanxxx to TCM for bringing her to the forefront. Hollywood has provided a lifestyle many of them would never have. But I'm hoping that when they come to Hollywood they bring their life experience...value...morals. Ava didn't seem to have a "big head" or let Hollywood turn her head. How much of the stars do we see in us...and how much of us are in these stars. I do not know. I love my movie stars. I fantasize...speculate...admire and adore them. And its much of the writing I read here, that helps me put my thoughts into perspective. Edited by: CineMaven on Nov 26, 2010 7:08 PM