LsDoorMat
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Posts posted by LsDoorMat
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On 3/18/2018 at 9:55 PM, misswonderly3 said:
Ok, it might be time for me to retire from posting here. This is the second week in a row I've made an idiotic and totally preventable mistake, mixing up two different actors. (Last week, it was Elisha Cook Jr., who I mindlessly exchanged for Elijah Wood ! Although maybe because I was unconsciously thinking there's something kind of hobbit-like about Elisha?)
Yes, Helen, of course it was Robert Young, NOT Robert Montgomery. In my defense, I have always gotten those two Roberts mixed up. I actually really do think they kind of look alike- well, maybe not so much in Crossfire, where Robert Young has taken on a kind of older -man Marcus Welby look.
I didn't even know that Elizabeth Montgomery's dad was a famous actor or that Robert Young had a movie career prior to television until TCM came on the air. So don't feel so bad. Also, I know somebody who can't tell James Dunn and Robert Montgomery apart. That I don't get.
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18 hours ago, Barton_Keyes said:
No, it's just that Ben Mankiewicz does a lot of other stuff on the side, beside his hosting for TCM. He is also a regular contributor to the YouTube channel The Young Turks, hosting TYT Sports and the What the Flick!? movie review show. And unlike Robert Osborne, who was 62 when TCM launched and had no children, Ben Mankiewicz has a young family in Los Angeles. As it is, he already commutes to Atlanta to record TCM segments once every three weeks. Asking much more of him would seem unreasonable. For Robert Osborne, seems fair to say that movies were pretty much his life. With Ben Mankiewicz, talking about movies is certainly something he is passionate about, but he is first and foremost a broadcaster, whereas Osborne was always considered a film historian. Important distinction, I think. Mankiewicz, it seems, wants the freedom to do other things in addition to his TCM hosting duties.
Thanks for the information on all that Ben does, and I realize I'm being over sensitive. However as a 60 year old with no children and who just lost both parents within two weeks of one another, I was already feeling like an old tree with no roots and no leaves. I believe the concise term for such a tree is lumber. So this comment (unfairly) sounded like - "hey, Osborne was old and had no kids. What else did he have to do with his life but work." It just makes me feel like the people in this commercial:
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On 3/5/2018 at 6:21 PM, LawrenceA said:
The article states that Ben will remain the Thursday through Sunday primetime host, while Karger and Malone will rotate through all the other needed intros.
I like both Dave Karger and Alicia Malone, but what is up with Ben? After just two years of being the primetime host is he scaling back to the schedule Robert Osborne had due to illness towards the end? Think about all Robert Osborne did the first ten years he was at TCM - I believe he was pretty much the ONLY host, he did the Private Screenings interviews, prepared for all of the guest programmers, wrote articles about TCM stars of the month and other TCM special events, and still managed to write for the Hollywood Reporter, a job he had from 1983 until the middle of 2009. I realize Robert Osborne had incredible energy and passion, but is Ben already getting bored with the job? Just wondering.
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Strangest place for me would probably be in the dentist's chair too during a dental cleaning. The hygienist gave me the remote and told me "anything but news". There was a TCM Joe E. Brown tribute going on and 1929's "On with the Show" was on, so I turned to that channel. She never gave me the remote again in subsequent visits. I believe this happened in July 2009, and I'm pretty sure I posted about it here shortly after it happened.
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10 hours ago, TomJH said:
"I don't know who you are, doll face. But you sure look like Shirley Booth to me!"
Where did this picture come from? And don't say from my closet. What play (I assume it is a play) did this come from?
EDIT: Never mind. I found it myself. It's the 1925 production of the play "Hell's Bells". In 1925 they make a handsome couple. In 1950 it would have looked odd. "I love you Mr. B".
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1 hour ago, laffite said:
Do you recall that very fine six-part documentary that TCM aired some years ago, the title escapes me right now. I wonder if that is out on DVD, probably not. I have it on VHS but I don't have the equipment set up to play right now. Surely you must have like it.
You could be remembering two things. You could be remembering "Moguls and Movie Stars" which was a seven part documentary on Hollywood from the birth of the movies until the end of the studio system. This aired on TCM in 2010 and is on DVD complete with the panel discussion after each episode led by Robert Osborne.
If you are remembering something really old, you could be remembering "Silent Hollywood" which was in 13 parts and has never been on DVD due to rights problem. I think it aired in 1980 on PBS and was made over a several year period in the late 1970s. I don't think it has ever aired on TCM. The episodes were:
Pioneers
In The Beginning
Single Beds and Double Standards
Hollywood Goes to War
Hazards of the GameSwanson and ValentinoAutocratsComedy: A Serious BusinessOut WestMan with the MegaphoneTrick of the LightStar TreatmentEnd of an EraSilent Hollywood can be found on youtube.-
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Shirley Booth's film appearances:
1968 The Smugglers (TV Movie) Mrs. Hudson1966 CBS Playhouse: The Glass Menagerie (TV Movie) The Mother1958 The Matchmaker Dolly 'Gallagher' Levi1958 Hot Spell Alma Duval1954 About Mrs. Leslie Mrs. Vivien Leslie1953 Main Street to Broadway Shirley Booth (small cameo role)1952 Come Back, Little Sheba Lola DelaneyShe lived from 1898 to 1992. One Best Actress Oscar out of four eligible film appearances - not bad.I did not count a short she did in 1949 nor did I count a 1970s TV film in which only her voice is credited.-
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Precode, film-noir, and crime/mystery are the genres I enjoy the most.
I also enjoy almost anything of any genre made at the dawn of sound (1928-1930) because so many of them are delightfully awful.
The genre I like the least is the western genre because there are basically about one half dozen boilerplate plots, especially among the ones made in the 30s and 40s. There are exceptions of course.
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4 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
i just can't help it.
i know life would be so much easier for me if i liked THE COEN BROTHERS.
But I don't.
And I can't.
I mean, I've tried, but no.
It just makes me dislike them all the more.
(I know my saying this is akin to ME reading someone dumping all over LUBITSCH or WILDER or HITCHCOCK, but there it is. It's not a forced opinion or one I've come to lightly either, I've given them a chance, but I have this VISCERAL REACTION to their work time and again.)
ps- I'll burn it all down with this: there is no film in all filmdom that I HATE more than FARGO.
I just love Fargo. It just rings so true - even though I know the tale is complete fiction - that a very average guy marries into a wealthy family and starts coveting some of his father-in-law's wealth. It is obvious the father-in-law is just tolerating his son-in-law because he gives him a job that anybody could handle - selling cars. So the average guy thinks he'll embezzle some money from the in-law's business in a scheme that cannot fail and then replace the money, but fail it does. Then he decides to fake his own wife's kidnapping and use the ransom to cover up his theft. He thinks he can control the situation and the felons involved in the kidnapping, and then that too goes terribly wrong. And then there is Marge Gunderson as the sheriff. If you think about it, there is not much difference between the mediocrity of Marge's husband and Macy's average guy character as far as talent goes. But Marge's husband is basically happy with his lot and willing to do hard work to improve himself, and Macy's character was not, he thought himself more clever than he was, and in the end he is brought down by the good police work of Marge. The movie is much more than that, but these are the main things I got out of it.
I also love "Raising Arizona" because it so captures the speech patterns and manneriisms of people from the Southwest - I'm from Dallas. Only in the polite but wild Southwest could an outlaw carjack you at gunpoint, and when the carjacking comes to an end, say "Much obliged" to the victim.
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On 3/15/2018 at 10:05 PM, Allenex said:
That's the set I've got too. Those are great films, especially Dinner at eight and Wife vs secretary. But I haven't been able to locate the set which has Bombshell, Platinum blonde, Red headed woman, and Saratoga. I want those also.
In 2011 there was a set put out by the Warner Archive with seven burned discs in it:
JEAN HARLOW 7-MOVIE COLLECTION
BOMBSHELL Glamour queen Lola (Harlow) is quitting the movie biz - something her manipulative press agent (Lee Tracy) can't allow!
THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI Eadie's not easy! A plucky bachelorette (Harlow) intends to bag a New York millionaire...without abandoning her virtue.
PERSONAL PROPERTY Glittery fun! Debt-ridden socialite Harlow puts on a show of wealth to impress a suitor who's also making a pretense of fortune. Robert Taylor is the butler who sees through the ruses.
RECKLESS Harlow goes dramatic as a Broadway star accused of murder after the death of her high-living, high-society hubby. With William Powell, the last real-life love of Harlow's short life.
RIFFRAFF She works in a cannery. He's a fisherman. But their playful romance is fated to give way to a tragedy surrounding union activism. She's Harlow, he's Spencer Tracy.
SARATOGA The flag is up for thoroughbred fun as Harlow is engaged to a millionaire, but drawn to Clark Gable.
SUZY A heroine buffeted by fate! Harlow, Cary Grant and Franchot Tone in a World War I triangle of romance and spy intrigue.Red Headed Woman is in TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection - Volume One (Waterloo Bridge / Baby Face / Red-Headed Woman) I think this is out of print too, but at least copies are out there on Amazon and probably elsewhere. Plus this set is pressed.
Platinum Blonde is on pressed but out of print DVD from Columbia. Amazon still has people selling copies at prices that are not too crazy. I hope that this helps.
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I bought my 4 disc DVD set in 2007. It was released in 2004. These are the extras:
Gone with the Wind - Four-Disc Collector's Edition (1939)
+ Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind, The (Documentary) (1988)
+ Gone with the Wind: Restoring a Legend (Documentary) (2004)
+ Old South, The (Short) (1940)
+ Melanie Remembers: Reflections by Olivia de Havilland (Documentary) (2004)
+ Gable: The King Remembered (Documentary) (1975)
+ Vivien Leigh: Scarlett & Beyond (Documentary) (1990)
+ Supporting Players: Cameo Portraits of an Unforgettable Ensemble (Documentary) (2004)+ Film on two discs with commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer.This set is out of print now, so I should be glad I picked it up at the time. -
The Painted Veil (1934) 6/10
I wrote this review nine years ago, but it still applies. I saw the film again just last week.
This film has some rather fantastic elements about it, mainly that Greta Garbo would be playing a spinster, and that having several suitors - as her mother claims that she has - she would hastily accept a marriage proposal from someone for whom she has absolutely no passion. In this case it is Herbert Marshall playing both an unloved husband and a devoted medical researcher into the cause and prevention of cholera. The other fantastic element is trying to believe that there is any chemistry between Garbo and "the other man, George Brent. Brent - who was so wonderful with Kay Francis, Bette Davis, and Ruth Chatterton - is here no more attractive than the husband he is trying to supplant. He has all the chemistry of a cardboard box.
The best part of the film is once Marshall realizes he has been cuckolded and makes an ultimatum to his faithless wife. He has just learned of a raging cholera epidemic in inland China and must go there and try to get it under control. His wife can stay behind if Brent's character agrees to get a divorce, in which case she can also have one. If he does not agree to this, then Garbo must come along with him on his expedition and thus be exposed to the most extreme danger.
This was one of Garbo's first films after the production code came into effect earlier in 1934. There were so many limits put on what could be said and shown and even insinuated that it really put a damper on what was supposed to be a pretty torrid love triangle. Trying to perform in a moral straight jacket is probably what really cost this film its potential edge. I'd recommend this for Garbo completists only.Source: TCM
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On 3/18/2018 at 12:46 PM, drednm said:
TCM now lists With Byrd at the South Pole(1930) in the William Haines filmography. Haines was a big star in the 1920s and 30s, famously teamed with the likes of Marion Davies, Mary Pickford, Joan Crawford, Anita Page, Eleanor Boardman, Lon Chaney, Jack Benny, etc.
The documentary film has a real-life meteorologist named William C. Haines in it.
NOT THE SAME GUY!
You obviously never heard of William Haines' spoof of the documentary, "Billy Gets Silly Where It's Chilly". And to think you are a film historian!
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William Haines - actor, interior decorator to the stars, meteorologist - what a guy!
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You know, although this is a minor point, this business of getting the exact year of the Academy Award winner has bugged me too, sewhite2000, just so that you don't feel alone. Another thing that has bugged me for years. If Casablanca opened in NY in 1942, why was it not in contention for Oscar with the films of 1942 rather than with the films of 1943, which is the year for which it actually won?
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All day tomorrow is a good day of "Films starring George Brent that are good not necessarily because of George Brent". The only one I haven't seen is "Submarine D-1", so I can't comment on its quality. However, it is also a Pat O'Brien film I have not seen yet, so I will likely record it if I cannot get up that early to see it.
Butterfield 8 has Liz playing a prostitute who falls for a married man with the married man she actually fell for and married (Eddie Fisher) in a supporting and non-romantic role. He really couldn't act could he? The dialogue is ham fisted at times, but Liz is pretty good in an Oscar winning role.
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1 minute ago, Bethluvsfilms said:
My mom watched the show while it was still on the air during the 60's. I caught the show on reruns as a kid in the 80's and now I got the whole show on DVD. I also have the movies (HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS and Tim Burton's 2012 film).
So I am still a DARK SHADOWS FANATIC as well as my mom, lol.
Does that DVD set have the part of Dark Shadows that was pre Barnabus, when it was just a standard soap? I've never seen those episodes and just wondered if the old cast was there, or did they clean house and start fresh?
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Watching Liz in her SOTM films these past few days/nights, and looking at the young adult roles she got stuck with at MGM as one of the last of the studio era actresses, her early filmography is practically a post mortem on MGM. There are lots of hammy roles and one - "The Girl Who Had Everything" - that tries to capture the precode magic of MGM in the Thalberg years and just misses on every front. I'm not sure how many years she was actually under contract to MGM, but I'm sure she was glad to be free of the studio. One in that era, though, "The Last Time I Saw Paris" is a good role for Liz and a good role for everybody in the cast.
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Exclusive! (1937) 7/10
Stars Fred MacMurray as assistant editor of a newspaper, Charles Ruggles as an older reporter on the same paper, and Frances Farmer as the former's fiancee and the latter's daughter. Lloyd Nolan stars as his typical gangster persona. The paper MacMurray works for is printing articles to expose Nolan and his rackets and help elect a reform candidate, played by Ralph Morgan. But Nolan has a novel angle. He buys a competing paper and hires reporters at top dollar to try and put the crusading paper out of business. Any likability or sympathy Farmer's character has - she is fired from her job in the middle of the Great Depression because she won't put out for the boss - is lost when she calls her dear old dad an "old licked failure" professionally. Plus she decides to go to work for Nolan's paper, partly because she wants to repay a debt somebody else took on for her, partly because MacMurray forbids her to do so and she does not want to be pushed around. The two break up over it. In spite of Nolan warning his hoods to "cool it around the broad, she's not stupid, she'll put two and two together", Farmer plays a girl that really is not that world-wise and does not put two and two together until much later.
It's really a fast moving film about yellow journalism versus decent reporting, and about how every little dirty secret about somebody does not need to be revealed in print. MacMurray is good in these fast talking roles in his younger days. If it's Paramount and Charles Ruggles is around, you are going to have to put up with some of his drunk act, but I don't think they overdo it here. I'd recommend it if you ever find a copy. The last time I saw it on TV was on the old AMC.
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3 hours ago, TomJH said:
Burton is particularly good.
Anyone remember the 1929 Taming of the Shrew, with Fairbanks and Pickford? I love the moment when Fairbanks shows up at their wedding wearing a rubber boot for a hat.
Yes! I have a copy! Mary Pickford is so tiny that every time they have her doing serious damage to people or furniture, it is behind closed doors, because physically she just can't accomplish it.
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26 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) - Excellent comedy-mystery from MGM and director W.S. Van Dyke. Nick (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) are back on the case when a jockey is murdered, leading to more intrigue involving crooked sports promoters, reporters and suspicious dame or two. Also featuring Barry Nelson, Donna Reed, Henry O'Neill, Sam Levene, Alan Baxter, Richard Hall, Stella Adler, Loring Smith, Joseph Anthony, Lou Lubin, Louise Beavers, Jody Gilbert, Tor Johnson, Ava Gardner in her debut, and Asta.
This is the fourth in the Thin Man series, which is a well-worn series on TCM. I've seen the first three films, the first two many years ago, but I've just never gotten around to the final three until now. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. Powell and Loy still have great chemistry, although Loy is given less to do this time out. The supporting cast is interesting, with noted acting teacher Stella Adler memorable in one of her few movie roles, playing a classy lady who's secretly a shady broad. A baby-faced Barry Nelson makes his movie debut, and a very young Donna Reed plays his sweetheart. Sam Levene, as the head policeman in charge of the case, hams it up, but his shtick had me laughing by the end. Ava Gardner can be glimpsed very briefly. I'm sure I've heard about it before, but I had forgotten that Tor Johnson was in this, and when he showed up, with a head of curly hair no less, I almost fell out of my chair. My only complaints about this entry would be the unnecessarily slapstick barroom brawl scene, and some of the sappy scenes with Powell and little Richard Hall as Nick Jr. (7/10)
Source: TCM. This was a recording from New Year's Eve of 2015/2016, with Robert Osborne doing the intro/outro.
My husband and I watched this on youtube while we were waiting at DFW last Sunday. I think the sappy scenes between Nick and son - in particular with little Nick in the military outfit - was a bit of a build up for WWII. By that time - 1941 - people knew it was just a matter of time. I liked the film very much, but I could have done without Barry Nelson. There's something about his face that just makes me want to punch his lights out. Maybe it's the eyebrows. Well constructed mystery although I figured out who the villain was pretty much from the beginning.
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11 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
"don't run afoul of me young mister smith. I'm just a prototype for a real smart fella who will come after me."
I'm halfway afraid to ask this, but at the risk of ruining your joke, who is the "real smart fella"?
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14 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
Thanks. From what I read, it was filmed mostly (entirely?) on the Warners backlot.
My favorite O'Brien-Cagney flick is BOY MEETS GIRL.
I guess my favorite Cagney/O'Brien collaboration would be "The Fighting 69th". I also really liked O'Brien's precodes such as "College Coach" and "Bureau of Missing Persons".
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Just now, TopBilled said:
I guess the real question is if it's a film worth seeing. Some films out of circulation are not very good.
"Ceiling Zero" is definitely worth seeing. It's Cagney and O'Brien playing off of one another so well like they always did. Just understand that most of the action is on the ground, not in the air.
HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM
in General Discussions
Posted
To the guy who has the lists of films that have been on TCM before, have any of tomorrow's films been on TCM before, and if so, when was their last showing:
Their Big Moment (1934)
The Kid Comes Back (1938)
They All Come Out (1939)