Film_Fatale
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Posts posted by Film_Fatale
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Hello Miss Maven. Yes....I have been left sitting on the edge of my seat so many times...well...let's just say that the edge of my seat just aint what it used to be. But..hope springs eternal. I guess I am just one of those cockeyed optimists....I just keep waiting and waiting.
Well, maybe that makes two of us optimists. In spite of everything, I still believe in trying to find the best in people.
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> {quote:title=patful wrote:}{quote}
> *...I don't remember Stockwell being too annoying...*
>
> Probably just me. I find most child actors pretty annoying. :-)
Well a lot of them can be. I probably found Stockwell more annoying in *Blue Velvet*, but he obviously wasn't a child anymore!
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Wow! I had never heard of the New Grass Revival before. Thank you for sharing, Kathy. That's a really awesome video.
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> {quote:title=Gregory1965 wrote:}{quote}
> Would somebody care to take on a list of:
>
> Five Films (Pre-1950) With the Best Use of Technicolor
*The Wizard of Oz*
*Gone with the Wind*
*Black Narcissus*
*The Red Shoes*
*The Gang's All Here*
(Highly subjective, I know!)
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> {quote:title=Scottman wrote:}{quote}
>
> I would also add Erich von Stroheim's THE WEDDING MARCH (1928) to round out your Vienna films. :-)
Not sure if I've watched it, but thanks for the suggestion!
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John Huston is really cementing himself to me as one of my favorite directors -- he didn't disappolnt with THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. This was very short; I understand it's been cut (SGT. YORK could have used such brevity)
but that somehow works to its advantage. I loved the soldier's-eye views. This was almost like historical cinema verite on the Civil War battlefield, I liked the b&w photography. Audie Murphy is excellent -- hitting just the right conflicting emotional notes.
I can only imagine this movie was tough on Audie. I don't think it could have been pleasant
to have to get back into the soldier mentality over and over after all he went through for real. Therefore, I can bet he was good in the hands of a director like Huston. I will try to watch it next time it airs.
Anyone who enjoyed *The Red Badge of Courage* would probably also enjoy reading this article from the TCM database:
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=389&category=Articles
*THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE (1951)*
*The Big Idea Behind THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE*
Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage in 1893.
Although he had never fought in the Civil War, Crane captured the atmosphere accurately by studying Matthew Brady's legendary photographs from that era. Director John Huston would instruct cameraman Harold Rosson to capture the same look for the film.
In 1950, Huston had just been pulled off MGM's big budget production of Quo Vadis? (1951) after a fight over the film's direction between production chief Dore Schary, who wanted to emphasize the picture's contemporary political parallels, and studio head Louis B. Mayer, who wanted a typical Hollywood spectacle. Mervyn LeRoy took over the film, which became a huge hit.
Huston was a friend of producer Wolfgang Reinhardt from their days together at Warner Bros. Reinhardt's younger brother, Gottfried, was producing at MGM and approached Huston, who had just made The Asphalt Jungle (1950) there, about working on a film version of Stephen Crane's classic novel.
MGM bought the rights to Stephen Crane's book for $10,000.
Originally Huston and Reinhardt wanted Norman Mailer, currently enjoying the success of his best-selling novel, The Naked and the Dead, to write the screenplay. When he wasn't available, Schary suggested that Huston write it himself.
The first draft script was written by Huston's production assistant, Albert Band, who would go on to become a prolific producer and director of low-budget films, particularly in the '70s and '80s. Band simply translated the book's dialogue and action into screenplay form. Huston then did the re-write during a trip to Mexico. He took great pride in the fact that two-thirds of the dialogue came directly from the novel.
Mayer hated the film's script and tried to have the production cancelled. He said, "I would rather shoot Huston than shoot the picture. We could then put the money into a defense in court. No jury would convict me." Finally he and Schary appealed to Nicholas Schenck -- head of MGM's parent company, Loew's Inc. -- to choose between them. Schenck sided with Schary.
Mayer then tried to talk Huston and Reinhardt out of making the film. "How can you make a picture of boys with funny caps and popguns, and make people think the war they are fighting is terrible?" he argued. When Huston gave in too easily, however, he lectured him: "John Huston, I'm ashamed of you! Do you believe in this picture? Have you any reason for wanting to make it other than the fact that you believe in it?...Stick by your guns! Never let me hear you talk like this again! I don't like this picture. I don't think it will make money. I don't want to make it, and I will continue to do everything in my power to keep you from making it. But you -- you should do everything in your power to make it!."
Mayer continued badmouthing the picture, most notably in his interview with Lillian Ross for her articles on the film's production in The New Yorker (later republished as Picture in 1952) and at the first preview. This unprecedented behavior for a studio executive would contribute to his ouster from MGM in 1951.
Casting Audie Murphy in the lead was director John Huston's idea. He was intrigued by the contrast between his war record and his physical appearance: "This little, gentle-eyed creature. Why, in the war he'd literally go out of his way to find Germans to kill. He's a gentle little killer."
Reinhardt and Schary wanted an established star like Montgomery Clift or Van Johnson in the leading role. They finally bowed to Huston's wishes when gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, who was a friend of Murphy's, put pressure on them. She later explained, "I called Dore and said it would be nice seeing a real soldier playing the part of a screen soldier for a change. With so many of our young men going to Korea, putting Audie in the picture would aid in boosting their morale. Audie got the part." Ironically, she had never read the original novel.
Murphy had been the most decorated U.S. soldier in World War II, a distinction that put him on the cover of Life magazine and brought him to Hollywood, where he made a series of low-budget Westerns at Universal Studios. After six movies there, the offer to star as the Young Soldier in The Red Badge of Courage was the first role he felt suited for.
Murphy wasn't the only actor in the film on whom Huston was taking a chance. He had met John Dierkes, cast as the Tall Soldier, in London during the war and thought he was right for the part. Dierkes took a leave from his job with the Treasury Department to make the film and never went back, spending the rest of his life as an actor. Bill Mauldin -- who made his name with his political cartoons for the U.S. military newspaper, Stars and Stripes -- had met Huston while the director was filming his documentary The Battle of San Pietro (1945). Huston told him his role as the Loud Soldier was typecasting.
Murphy's salary for the film was $2,500 a week with a ten week guarantee, relatively low for a leading man on a major studio production. Huston was paid $137,334 for directing and another $28,000 for writing the screenplay. Most of it had to be paid to him in advance so he could cover his gambling debts.
by Frank Miller
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The perennial classic *National Velvet* is on TCM this Friday, Jan. 16 at 8:30am ET:
*National Velvet* (1944)
A British farm girl fights to train a difficult horse for the Grand National Steeplechase.
Cast: Donald Crisp , Anne Revere , Mickey Rooney , Elizabeth Taylor C-124 mins, TV-G
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> {quote:title=patful wrote:}{quote}
> Hmmm...being an O'Brien fan, I couldn't bear to watch anyone else in the role, even if Maberly is English. So I skipped it. :-( Though I did find Stockwell really annoying (I guess he was supposed to be, though), I can't imagine anyone else topping Reginald Owen and Elsa Lanchester as Ben and Martha. And the Technicolor scenes are probably the most vivid I've ever seen.
patful, it has been a while since I've seen the MGM original, honestly I don't remember Stockwell being too annoying, but I'll keep that in mind next time I watch it. As far as Elsa Lanchester, well, I wouldn't imagine anyone else topping her, either!
The 1949 original is playing again this Thursday at 4pm ET:
*The Secret Garden* (1949)
An orphaned girl changes the lives of those she encounters at a remote estate.
Cast: Gladys Cooper , Herbert Marshall , Margaret O'Brien , Dean Stockwell Dir: Fred M. Wilcox BW-92 mins, TV-G
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> {quote:title=marcco44 wrote:}{quote}
> i also saw parts of this film--- missed recording it--- and i'm hoping this will be shown again on tcm soon. the technicolor print was beautiful.
The TCM print is very good, I agree - too bad WHV has yet to issue this one on DVD.
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> {quote:title=OneSharpDame wrote:}{quote}
> Film Fatale, that is a question that film professors and critcs have argued ever since a French critc tagged some American films as 'film noir' in the late 1940's. But to answer with my own opinion, I don't think of film noir as a sub-category of crime drama. Mainly because crime drama has subcategories (courtroom drama, police procedurals, gangster etc) enough and there are films which would be tagged with those sub-genres which are also noir.
>
Fair enough, OSD. But I'm still curious, under which genre do you classify noir?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHevOVJq2e8&feature=related
Awwwww that's a sweet little song, never heard it before I think. :x
(my gosh, my golly...what WAS little Debbie thinkin with this one'??)
Well I don't know what she was thinking, but I love that 60's 'do! B-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEiXbovv98
Awwwww Kermit!!! I used to think this was the bestest song in the whole world. Yes, of course I was just a little girl...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYb83KM4at4
The 80's. There's nostalgia of a different kind. :0
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Ohhhh that is really cute artwork, Kyle! Lovely poster... or lobby still, whatever it is.
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Robert Stack
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Happy B-Day, *Hal Roach* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Jan. 14, 1892 - Nov. 2, 1992)
Happy B-Day, *Margaret Booth* (MGM Editor-in-Chief) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Jan. 14, 1898 - Oct. 28, 2002)
Happy B-Day, *William Bendix* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Jan. 14, 1906 - Dec. 14, 1964)
Happy B-Day, *Harold Russell* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Jan. 14, 1914 - Jan. 29, 2002)
Happy B-Day, *Faye Dunaway* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Jan. 14, 1941)
Happy B-Day, *Lawrence Kasdan* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
(Jan. 14, 1949)
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Madelein Sherwood was in *Sweet Bird of Youth*
with _Paul Newman._
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> {quote:title=ddalehall wrote:}{quote}
> I remember when that came out but I never saw it. Sounds good, I'll have to check it out.
You should definitely watch it, especially if you regularly watch new releases. It really does explain a lot about the bizarre and hypocritical way in which the MPAA rates movies.
Getting back to *The Third Man*, I watched the Criterion blu-ray disc last night. It looks absolutely marvelous. Watching the movie and being able to notice the film grain is a breathtaking experience.
I've only watched the movie and listened to but a small part of the audio commentaries yet, so I'm going to keep in snappy for now. Maybe the most surprising thing, given how long it had been since I had watched it last, is how memory had started playing tricks in regards to the movie. For some reason, I was absolutely certain that Harry Lime's "cuckoo clock" speech was delivered while they were at the top of the ferris wheel.
The other thing that seems remarkable is how very simple the story really is when you get right down to it, once you put aside the artistic embellishment and the beautiful b&w cinematography. It really comes down to this: an American looks up an old friend in Vienna but finds out he's dead. Later he finds out he was a criminal and also that he isn't actually dead. Finally, he watches him die for real.
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> {quote:title=molo14 wrote:}{quote}
> *Uh-oh. That does sound like my kind of flick. It just came out on DVD, so I'm gonna look to get it now. So is it a psychological thriller/horror, ala Gaslight?*
>
> I would describe it more as a dark fantasy. I think it might be something a little different for you, while still encompassing the themes you like. It's about the consequences of freeing yourself from all societal convention and morality. It's about someone who loses themselves. I would be curious as to how others describe it. The black and white cinematography is fantastic and creates just the right moody atmosphere.
dear molo,
If you enjoyed *The Picture of Dorian Gray* you should most definitely like *The Informer*. That's not to say that they are both quite in the same wavelength, because they're not. While they do share a dark edge and a very moody atmosphere, *The Informer* tends to stick to some basic realism in the situations, while *Dorian Gray* obviously, as you said, brings some fantasy into the picture (no pun intended).
And anyone planning to watch *Dorian Gray* on DVD should definitely try and listen to Angela Lansbury's audio commentary, since she does explain a lot of things about the movie that are both entertaining and enlightening.
Speaking of dark and moody films, I finally got to revisit *The Third Man* last night - and for the first time in blu-ray. It looks absolutely marvelous in high-definition, but I won't ramble about it in here (like most folks wouldn't ignore me anyway as always!) since there is a separate thread right here in *Films and Filmmakers*.
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_Top Movies set in Vienna_
*The Great Waltz*
*The Third Man*
*Oh.... Rosalinda!!*
*Before Sunrise*
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Personally I would have picked *Evil Dead 2* over the first one, but my fondness for that movie may have to do more with regular screenings of it in the dorms when I was in college. It was a great movie to watch while playing quarters, hee hee. B-)
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> {quote:title=OneSharpDame wrote:}{quote}
> >Gosh that's almost as hard for me as picking one of the 7 dwarfs. I'd have to say it's a tie I guess between the S.Z. Sakall character and Oskar Homolka's.
>
> Film Fatale, it is funny that you made this remark since Snow White was used as source material/inspiration for Ball of Fire.
Now that you mention it, yes, I think I heard or read that somewhere before. It might even have been right here in the forums.
> I saw the Hawks documentary you referred to and I did enjoy hearing him talk about his work in his own words. I had always suspected that he was a leaned to machismo/mythical male side, given the difference in treatment in his male and female characters and it was confirmed when he complimented a female scriptwriter by saying 'she was great to work with; she wrote like a man'.
It's an interesting thing he'd say that. To me, the best writer would be one who can write equally credible and compelling male and female characters, but that's just imho.
>
> As great as John Wayne and John Ford were as a pair, I think Hawks might have gotten Wayne's best performance out of him in Red River.
It is a terrific performance. I'll admit that for some strange reason, I found his haircut just a little bit distracting because I wasn't used to seeing him with slightly longish hair. Yes, that's a pretty small quibble considering what a great, well-acted movie it is - but for some reason it just looked weird to me at times. I'm sure it won't seem so out of place in future viewings.
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
> I know from personal experience around here that it can take time to mend those fences and sometimes it isn't easy but it can be done.
>
> Many times it depends upon the approach taken.
Alright, fair enough, Lynn. I appreciate your taking the time to reply in a nice, polite, and thoughtful way. I apologize because maybe I needed to vent a little, but I appreciate that you try to approach the situation in a constructive way, and I'm relieved that you feel mending the fences is possible. Nothing would please me more.
Thank you for your good will and kind words. You may have just made my day.
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> {quote:title=lzcutter wrote:}{quote}
>
> It's the nature of message boards, FF, that they are not always going to be bastions of good will. For the most part the folks at the SSO get along fine. They have disagreements with one another over films and actors but for the most part it is friendly disagreement.
>
> Occasionally, the rhetoric will get heated and pointed as happened in the Golden Globes thread. How it is handled is the key. Despite what some have posted, no one has left yet and I doubt that folks will be leaving over the dust-up in that thread.
>
> But this is all stuff that you will encounter on your new social networking site. If it is like other networking sites or other message boards, there will be plenty of discussions going on and how you handle the disagreements will go a long way to helping your site be successful.
>
> Message was edited by: lzcutter because way is an important word in that last sentence.
Well, I basically agree with you there, Lynn.
The larger point I was trying to make to CM, and I hope it doesn't get lost in all that stuff about SSO, is that sometimes people's intentions are perhaps misjudged and this may sometimes make the forum experience less pleasant for everyone around.
I don't believe I have to tell you there are a few folks in this very thread who have apparently chosen to ignore me based on some very misguided assumptions. And these are the same folks who were quite friendly to me, when I was new. So to realize that folks are making assumptions about you that are completely false and unfounded is perhaps frustrating, to say the least.
As for the TCM fans' site, it is something that I feel is of a very different nature. While there is certainly space there for discussions, I had hoped that the main appeal of the site would be the ability to have a profile page, where you can post your favourite photos and videos, for all to see, if they visit your page. Folks can also write comments on other folks' pages, and/or send PMs. So I think that while the site certainly can have discussions going on when and if folks want it that way, it can still be a nifty little "check-in" site that helps TCM fans to stay in touch with one another, and check out the main stuff that's on the TCM schedule.
I would like to think (and perhaps I am just being hopelessly naive) that a site for TCM fans with less emphasis on discussions and more on just sharing stuff and staying in touch with friends might have its own kind of special appeal. You'd certainly be more than welcome to join it, if you ever have the time.
Well, I'm sure April would appreciate we let the thread get back to the usual ramblings about movies...
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That is probably the nicest *Maisie* poster, ever. Thanks for sharing, Kyle!
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Oh, cool, this thread is still around... B-)
The lovely Cyd Charisse
in Your Favorites
Posted