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CineMaven

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Posts posted by CineMaven

    Grooving to "The Rifleman"!!

    in Westerns

    Posted

    "But you know what sets it apart from the numerous other westerns? That adorable theme music! Hear it once, you're hooked for life!"

     

    Silly ol' me. I thought it was because Chuck Connors was a lean mean tall drink o' water with a beautiful stride down that dusty street shootin' off that Rifle, man. Tsk!

    A Walk on the Noir Side

    in Film Noir--Gangster

    Posted

    Looking at "Dangerous Profession." I'm pretty impressed with Jim Backus being a tough cop. Just a side note...when Georgie questions this blonde secretary, I swear...I think it's Peggy Cummins of "Gun Crazy" fame. Small eyes, blonde hair, British accent. I don't see her name in the credits...but I know my lethal ladies.

     

    George Raft has amazing eyes.

    The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    Well cut me down and call me Shorty. You make excellent points about the women of "The Diary..." Women sometimes are much more cruel to other women than men are to women. And you laid out the points so clearly even my myopia could see it.

     

    I understand what you mean about the 20's audience possibly turning against Thymian and blaming the victim. (But they might have sided with her if they saw her fight against the brute strength). I'm not quibbling the point.

     

    A silent movie (without Garbo) is making me think??? What next.

     

    I liked what you said Jackaaaaaaaaaaaay about Lulu, the time traveler. Good golly. If anyone could travel through time, I believe it'd be Louise. Looking at that interview she seems like a force of nature.

     

    Travelling on the #6 train home today, I saw a father and his 2-3 year old daughter get on the train. She was in a carriage...he picked her up, put her on the seat. He had his arm around her to protect her from the bar of the seat. He let her stand up on her own, but his arm was always near. she put her arms around his neck, he kissed her little cheeks. Their stop came and they got off.

     

    I'm thinking this little girl has a good start with her view of men. I'm hoping so.

    The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    ...And yet another thought just popped into my pointy head.

     

    I love leading men, with strong leading women. These guys seem a little more manly to me if they don't have a fey shrinking violet by their side dropping her hankie or falling down when they're running from the Law. She gives as good as she gets. I think of Hepburn and Stanwyck and Bette. Ida Lupino opposite Georgie in "They Drive By Night" just to name so very very few. Myrna oppo-

    site Gable. Lombard wasn't helpless. Basically neither was Irene Dunne. Nor Ann Sheridan (...though I know there's nothing that can help Robert Cummings in your eyes).

     

    :-)

    The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    Hello there Jackaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay - The below is my friend's comment to me about Lulu. And I have comments to make to you guys who've posted about "Diary of a Lost Girl."

     

    "Well, I guess it's true that great minds think alike. I took another look at 'Diary...' yesterday. Compelling is indeed an accurate description of Louise. She always claimed, when talking about her career, that she was not an actress, that she just acted like herself in front of the camera. Just between you and me, I can't buy that. The intensity of her screen presence could perhaps be attributed to her personal magnetism and photogeneity, but the depth and variety of the characters she played are surely the result of something more mental than she would admit to, not to mention hard work. Even though she seems to have been drunk most of, if not all, the time she was working, there is much more in these films than an empty-headed flapper. While this is most evident in her best movies, like the two somewhat heavy-handed Pabst films, her first (dubbed) talkie 'Prix de beaute', and her last American silent 'Beggars of Life' (You must see this!), it is also true in the smaller parts she played in lighter films, especially 'The Show-Off' (written by Grace Kelly's uncle) in which she is, literally, 'the girl next door'. This latter is a welcome relief to see her as a normal girl after all the torture and abuse she undergoes in her most famous pictures.

     

    Lulu forever,

     

    R.R."

     

    " I am pretty sure that in Germany, women were seriously expected to be helpless, dainty creatures, or if they weren't, to at least APPEAR that way - it was an ideal. Men were in complete and total control of the business, the household everything."

     

    I have no doubt and am in total agreement with you, that the way someone is raised probably is revealed in his/her filmmaking. Why do men fall for these "helpless" types? My dad was the head of the household. Oh, he's still alive and my parents are together...but maybe because my siblings and I are grown, we're no longer trembling in our boots, but face him with logic and reason.

    Besides...we can out-run him now at 83 years old. Hopefully if a girl has a good relationship with her father, she will pick a guy whose not an old meanie. (I'm simplifying this horrifically, okay?) How do I bring this back to Thymian...

     

    Well, her relationship with her father wasn't that great, so look at her choices. I'm a cine-Maven not a psych-Maven. Hold your ground over there at home, man. Perhaps your husband picked a girl UN-like his Mom???

     

    <<< (( MEINERT GRIMES writes )) >>> ?There's a great mix of chains and liberation and each seems to cause pain and hurt. There's a lot of using and abusing of woman in this world.?

     

    Oooh wow, I liked how you put that. Nicely worded.

     

    "There's a lot of truth in what you say. You see, I think of Thymian's father (Josef Rovensk?) being the 'protected Junior.' Instead of confronting him and his improprieties, the family looked to cover them up and get rid of the 'problem.' They do this to Elisabeth (Sybille Schmitz) and then Thymian. They are looking to protect the money man, the 'spoiled child.'

     

    Wow. I hadn?t thought of it that way. Good thought. Well, we can see the kind of bankrupt character he turned out to be.

     

    "The film completely takes off for me from that point on. The pain between a father and a daughter. She wants his love and he's wanting to give it to her. But he's too weak to allow it to happen. He's overruled by Meta (Franziska Kinz), who has a very selfish reason for doing so. So, once again, the father abandons the daughter.?

     

    Wonderful screen caps there Grimesy. She wants to be Daddy?s Little Girl, but he allows himself to be pulled away by the wife/housekeeper, and his daughter?s rapist. What?s Dad doing fraternizing with a rapist. Those caps you chose made me think of Genevieve Bujold and Cliff Robertson in ?OBSESSION.? Have you ever seen this DePalma film?

     

    ?So that's why Miss G hates me!? :P

     

    Nah, Frank. The reasons are actually innumerable. :P

     

    ?He had been given so much FREEDOM from responsibility for so long.. he was utterly USELESS as a responsible adult.? - Rohanaka

     

    ?Hey! That's me! Where's the window?!?

     

    Don?t jump. Your fate lies in the hands of some femme noir lethal lady. Kathy Moffett?s been asking for you. Oh...and some dame named Phyllis.

     

    <<< (( PEACEMAKER-HANAKA writes )) >>> "They certainly were 'equal opportunity' users and abusers. Almost the entire cast would have to rate among the most vile and lecherous bunch I can ever recall in a story like this. There were a few kind people in among the monsters.. but OH my golly, they were few and far between...?

     

    They were despicable, weren?t they?!! What a rotten bunch! The proverbial deck is stacked against Thymian. (And it starts with that name. What the heck IS that name??)

     

    "I was SO glad when he proved to be THE stand up guy he was appearing to be. And wow, I admired him so much as he said his closing line. It truly reinforced the depth of character and the sadness he felt over the loss of his nephew. (and I think also the love he now felt for Thymian as his niece).?

     

    As the Uncle sat back and watched Thymian in the Reformatory School and how she (finally) took a stand, I think Uncle Osdorff loved her strength. And it probably gave HIM strength.

     

    "As a result, she was the victim of her father (and his new wife).. the family ?elders?, the pharma-cist, the reformatory workers, the madame, and even the well meaning society women... More or less, either directly...or indirectly...she was made a virtual slave to her circum-stances by EACH of these folks who were just going along out there doing whatever they saw fit any way they wanted. And I imagine most of them did not even realize (or if they DID realize they did not care about) the harm they were causing this poor girl.?

     

    I?m also going to hold Thymian accountable for her actions as well. She didn?t quite have to go along with the flow once she escaped Reformatory School. She was attractive. She would have been hired as a shop girl. I?m not quite letting her off the hook. At some point, she had a choice.

     

    "...What a MEAN and cruel hand she was dealt by the actions of others.. and yet not a mean nor cruel bone in her body when it was over.. amazing.?

     

    See, this is what separates me from Silents or this kind of plot. This is what makes me flee to the women of film noir who take matters into their own hands (most time for bad, admittedly and admirably). I can?t take all the goodness and ?being Good shall overcome Evil.? What'd Thelma Ritter say in "All About Eve" -- all that's missing are the wolves nipping at her heels!

     

    "I was thinking last night about how REALLY.. by giving the money away.. it was the FIRST time Thymian was given ANY ownership of her own circumstances.?

     

    Did she give away the money b?cuz she saw the children??? Her child? Was one of those kids her daughter? I got confused there.

     

    <<< (( JACK FAVELL writes )) >>>

     

    "I think you hit on some really interesting aspects of the movie - that when personal responsibility is avoided, evil happens. The way one person's evil act and the lies surrounding it snowballs into an avalanche of people passing the buck.....how people are swayed into evil acts, and then make excuses for their actions.?

     

    Hi there. Back to your previously posted comments. I just saw "FAIR GAME? yesterday starring Naomi Watts & Sean Penn and your statement hits home about how one person?s evil has an avalanche of consequences for others. Speak up...speak out!!!

     

    "I agree about how you get hooked waiting to see how it will all work out for Thymian - I was worried because it was a German film that she would end up badly. I am so glad they took it in another direction, and that she had such inner strength. Where do you suppose she got it from??

     

    I dunno man. But I?m a coward. Oh yeah...I am. I have such a problem with silent films. The hokeyness of story telling mostly I guess, oh and the acting style. I can?t get into them. They seem dated, and the heaping of tragedy upon tragedy upon mishap upon moral upheaval is just too much for me to buy happening to one person. (Unless its Tom Conway in "DETOUR"). So when I watch a silent, I go in with gritted teeth. I go in like I'm taking in Castor Oil. And German films (in general) don?t thrill me either, in really the most general of terms. Things seem so harsh, spartan, militaristic. Ugh! Nothing soft. So I have to go for the mise-en-scene. I have to look at other things. (Still want to re-visit "M"). But "Diary..." is about ten years after Griffith and all that gesticulating acting style. This film felt pretty modern. It didn't hurt too bad.

     

    But the one thing that compelled me to watch, commanded me to continue to watch how it all played out...was Louise Brooks.

     

    "I am really rambling about this - I don't think it makes much sense, just random thoughts.?

     

    Don?t you know yet, your rambling random thoughts make so much more sense than all of the sniping sniveling sour grapes posts I read on this Message Board?

     

    Edited by: CineMaven on Nov 15, 2010 10:50 AM had to make that word: un-like...

    The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    >"I'd love to read your take on the story."

     

    Well...for better or worse, Miss G. here is my take:

     

    THE LOST GIRL...SPOILED AND SPOILED AGAIN: DEFILEMENT & REDEMPTION.

     

    Things seem to go from bad to worse for young Thymian in "Diary of a Lost Girl.?

     

    Not only does her attacker make an appointment to rape in her diary, (one of the most devas-tating acts I've ever seen in films), but her family takes her baby away and puts her in a reform school. There won't even be any ?Maedchen in Uniform? tenderness there for poor Thymian.

     

    Thymian is played by Louise Brooks who I must say has dark stunning looks and her trademark page boy. As Thymian she seems to have NO say in her own life...no voice. Things are beyond her control and everyone around her uses her.

     

    Her one protector should have been her father. But he?s a poor excuse for a man. He feels he can?t help because he?s been guilty of the very same transgressions against young women. But what gets me is that everyone disapprovingly but implicitly condones what her father does. It?s even resulted in an unwanted pregnancy for a housekeeper, who has commited suicide. Yikes!!!

     

    Thymian winds up in a brothel, drugged and violated once again. (What's up with the narcoleptic fainting spells which give men free rein over her? Why wasn't she allowed to be awake and fight, I wonder? Why this passive submission to their desire). She does attempt to break away from her circumstances by putting an ad in the paper for dance lessons. But the kindly looking "Aunt Bee" Madam with the double chin and pearls, subverts the ad slightly, making it kind of read differently. Thymian gets a handle on the ropes of the brothel and becomes pretty popular. (What?s a girl to do?)

     

    Her father is at an event held by the brothel, in attendance with his wife (ex-housekeeper) and the father of his grandchild. When Papa Henning sees Thymian as the lottery prize for the men at this party he is crushed. (Uhmmmm, "Why, Pops?? Would be my question).

     

    When Dr. Vitalis proclaims:

     

    "Yes Thymian, you?re a lost girl now,?

     

    I ask again, how many of them have contributed to her downfall. And couldn?t Thymian have walked OUT of that House? Yes, she?s initially the victim, but still????

     

    I liked the shot of Thymian coming to hear the reading of her father?s will, her back to the camera as she walks up the stairs. She looks out through rainsoaked window as her step-mother and kids leave in a little wagon pulled by a dog. (That was pitiful). But outside looked sunny. (Huh?) Meinert tries to make a move on Thymian, again in the lawyer's office. He wants another bite of the apple but is rejected by her and smacked by the barrister. Touche Herr Barrister! 'Bout time and not nearly enough!!

     

    When Thymian returns to the brothel, her brothelling sisters look for the $$$$, but she has given it to her stepmother. Osdorff Jr. bails out the window...good. I didn?t care for or about him. He was weak. And jumping took the easy way out. (Coward!) I didn?t see it coming, but I was glad it came. I liked that touch of one paper flying out in the air. It took one more obstacle out of Thymian?s way...out of her misguided sense of loyalty to someone, perhaps?

     

    I?m not crazy comfortable about movies where so much happens to the heroine...all these perils befalling our Tess Truheart. For me its just so much heaped on a person.

     

    Louise looks very lovely in her black widow?s weeds. Loved the seeing the beach used as a location. (There was a lech on the beach ready to make a move on Thymian...but she luckily, scampers away).

     

    I?m not quite sure why she can?t take care of herself; get a job. It?s 1929. Women are coming into their own. What?s the problem with T?? Back to the scene of the crime at the Reformatory with that tall bald-headed creep that she dealt with long before. I bet none of the girls ever had a decent night's sleep what with Baldy and their House-Mistress Eva Klemp. I?m hoping with her money Thymian can now do some good. And first on the agenda...kick out baldie!! I liked Pabst revisiting the soup, at the Reform School; ha! it's something she couldn't swallow before...and can not swallow now!!! (It?s funny how people don?t want you out of their clutches. They want to hold you down...hold you to them).

     

    The one man that didn?t want to take advantage of her is Uncle Count Osdorff and for that I am grateful though I held my breath waiting for him to make his "move." Pabst didn't easily give me anyone to trust for Thymian, now did he?

     

    I enjoyed "Diary of a Lost Girl." Now don't get me wrong, my Saccharine-O-Meter always goes

    a little haywire with preaching and sermonizing and the 'rise and fall' kind of plot; but I try to put myself in the mindset of 1929 and know that this is the storytelling of days of olde.

     

    But there?s nothing dated about Louise Brooks. When her coal black eyes look directly into the camera they are absolutely riveting as they burn a hole in me seventy-odd years later.

     

    I?ll check out my friend?s article and I?ll look at this documentary (which I vaguely remember when it aired):

     

    .

     

    She seems like a very direct, self-indulgent woman who for good or bad, lived life on her own terms. And apparently to many...what a life.

    What Ten Westerns Do You Wish TCM Would Show?

    in Westerns

    Posted

    Western as "comfort food." Hmmmm...I guess I feel that way about monster/horror movies ("The Crawling Eye" "Tarantula" "Blood of Dracula"); though nothing heroic in that fare. It's just that

    I've read many of the posts in the Western forum here that you and others seems to get so much

    more meaning out of the genre that I miss. Much of the analysis is so profound...so much more

    than the white hat/black hat thing.

     

    Thanxxx so much for indulging my curiosity.

     

    Guess I can cool it on the word "So" huh? Thanx.

     

    Edited by: CineMaven on Nov 14, 2010 9:17 PM...thank you for the "Home From the Hill" recommendation as well.

    The Annual FrankGrimes Torture Thread

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    Is it possible that just the mere skimming of such well-written material is enuf to send me to Barnes & Noble to see if they had this film?

     

    I left empty-handed (sold-out) but I'll go back during the week. In the meantime, as usual, you all have intrigued me. I love when the writing on this Board does that.

     

    Okay Pabst-y goes on my list of films to watch.

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