Arturo
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Posts posted by Arturo
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filmlover,
I understand that, but in the last two-three years or so, TCM has shown a number of Linda's Fox titles Along with movies she did elsewhere, TCM was able to do 24 hours of Linda's movies for her SUTS. That averages out to six hours per week, which could be 3-4 films; with the addition of a few more, it can be done. Below are some of Linda's 20-th Century Fox movies I believe have been shown on TCM:
DAYTIME WIFE (1939)
STAR DUST (1940)
BRIGHAM YOUNG (1940)
THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940)
BLOOD AND SAND (1941)
RISE AND SHINE (1941)
HANGOVER SQUARE (1945)
FALLEN ANGEL (1945)
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946) - I think
UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948)
A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1949)
EVERYBODY DOES IT (1949)
NO WAY OUT (1950)
TWO FLAGS WEST (1950)
If I'm right, that's at least 14 Fox movies TCM has shown. Plus they've shown several of her other movies:
IT HAPPENED TOMORROW (1944) - UA
BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE (1952) - RKO
SECOND CHANCE (1953) - RKO
ZERO HOUR (1957) - PARA.
So that's a minimum of 18 movies of Linda's that TCM may be able to obtain, seemingly enough for a SOTM tribute. With a handful more besides these, TCM can do a fitting tribute to Linda Darnell that doesn't just repeat the those shown for SUTS. Imagine if they can get some of her true rarities. There are over ten months to work on this. It can be done!
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I can try to suggest a programming schedule, using chronological and thematic style/genre as guides. I have no idea of the feasibility of these movies being shown, but here goes (all times Eastern):
First Week: MODERN DRESS COMEDIES AND DRAMAS:
8:00 PM:
HOTEL FOR WOMEN (1939); Already discussed here. Linda's film debut, and starting off with a starring role. Premiere (?)
9:30 PM:
DAY-TIME WIFE (1939): First of four co-starring roles with matinee idol Tyrone Power. In a role originally meant for Loretta Young, who refused to re-sign a lucrative contract with the studio, Linda actually had a more important role than Ty. They make an attractive couple in this screwball comedy, although Linda's comedy technique is in its infancy and would improve later. Also featuring Warren William, Wendy Barrie, Binnie Barnes, Joan Davis and Asta (if I remember correctly).
11:00 PM:
STAR DUST (1940): Based in part on Linda's own experience in being discovered and brought to Hollywood, this enjoyable feature has an interesting look into the starmaking process alll the studios were then involved with. Also featuring John Payne,Charlotte Greenwood, Roland Young, Mary Healy and Donald Meek. TRIVIA; LInda got her prints in cement at Graumann's Chinese Theater during its premiere....Linda had watched a late night showing of this film the night of the fire that would claim her life in Aprll 1965.
1:00 AM:
RISE AND SHINE (1941): Campus football comedy, with Linda a co-ed cheerleader. Also featuring George Murphy and Jack Oakie, Linda felt this was a come-down from the two Rouben Mammoulian directed movies starring Tyrone Power: THE MARK OF ZORRO an BLOOD AND SAND (both two be on Week Two's schedule).
2:30 AM:
CITY WITHOUT MEN (1943): Linda's first loanout to another studio (Columbia) yielded this programmer about a group of women reting rooms while waiting for their incarcerated husbands' release.
4:00 AM
SWEET AND LOWDOWN (1944): Linda is the ingenue (for the last time) in this tunefest featuring the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Lynn Bari as the band singer, and James Cardwell as the musician with whom Linda is involved.
More to follow.....
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Well for starters, we can start at the start. Linda's debut movie, 1939's HOTEL FOR WOMEN, had been scheduled to be shown for Linda's Summer Under The Stars showcase last year. It got bumped from the schedule; I don't know why. Hopefully it wasn't a rights issue or a subpar print, because it would be great to see it. Inspired by STAGE DOOR, It was a story of models and would-be models staying at an alL-girl's hotel in New York City. Also featured were Ann Sothern, James Ellison, Jean Kent, Lynn Bari and Elsa Maxwell, among others. Linda was already a great beauty here, at age 15, and looking more mature than her age (the studio added a couple of years in her official bio, so as to better play romantic roles).
Edited by: Arturo on Dec 4, 2012 2:39 AM
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Linda Darnell would have turned 90 next October 16, if she had lived (she died in 1965 at the age of 41). She hs been my favorite movie star since I was a kid, and read a biographical sketch of her in a book called THE LONELY BEAUTIES, and placed the face with the movies in which I had enjoyed seeing her. She had an ultimately tragic life, many missed or squandered opportunities and disappointments in both her private and professional life, and a horrendous end.
She was a luminous beauty, and underrated as an actress. She became a movie star at 20th Century Fox at the age of 15, starring with heartthrobs such as Tyrone Power, John Payne and Henry Fonda. But at the age of 18, she found her career stagnating, suddenly being assigned to unimportant pictures. Besides having a stage mother from hell, who had been banned from the lot, Linda was unpopular with studio head Darryl F. Zanuck for reputedly turning down his sexual advances once she came of age, and then at age 19 eloping with cameraman Pev Marley, who at 42, more than twice her age. Zanuck felt that her girl next door image would be hurt, but within a year, she had successfully changed her image to that of a femme fatale, on loan, in SUMMER STORM. Afterward, she was the studio's sex symbol, and would be cast as such. She was one of the studio's top stars until the early 50s, when external forces such as the growing popularity of television, and internal ones such as the arrival of Susan Hayward, and the meteoric rise of Marilyn Monroe, made Linda extraneous to the studio's needs, and she was dropped after nearly 14 years at Fox. She had a rough going of it freelancing, along with all the other studio stars suddenly dropped from long-term contracts.
Anyway, I feel that October 2013 would be an ideal time to pay tribute to this beautiful star. Although the bulk of her movies were for Fox, which may prove daunting in acquiring, it can be done; TCM was able to get a number of them for Linda's SUTS salute in 2011. She also did a number of movies for other companies, and some may be available. Plus a couple of RARE film ventures in Italy, and several TV movies (including at least one that had limited theatrical distribution), and There's the possibility (and hope) that a number of TCM premieres may be featured.
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RaquelVixen wrote
*With today's airing of Strange Lady in Town (1955) it appears there is not a single TCM premiere of a Greer Garson film for the entire month of March. It would be quite an understament to call this schedule underwhelming.*
Hibi wrote:
*Yeah, another excuse to trot out a lot of retreads that have been shown endlessly (nothing against Greer). But I guess they have to show a certain amount of "old favorites" in their SOTM series........*
Well, Greer Garson made maybe two dozen films in her career, so TCM doesn;t have a whole lot to choose from, especially for a month-long salute. With 6 movies per night (assuming it's four nights and not 5), all her movies can conceivably be shown (I haven't seen the actual schedule). Hopefully there won't be any padding, such as her several cameo appearances.
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Swithin wrote:
I wish I had recorded it! I haven't seen that version in ages.
Swithin:
Don;t worry you'll get other opportunities....TCM plays it often. It was on a couple of weeks back methinks.
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I do hope you realize that my 'definition' of "kudos" was intended as a joke...
*They are extinct flightless birds. As such, they are rare, and very valuable, making them fitting tribute.*
well I got it...dodo is the extint flightless bird...one of a an alarmingly large number of endemic oceanic island species that became extinct once man arrived, either through direct hunting, gathering of eggs, or loss or degradation of habitat, or due to animals that accompanied him: dogs, cats, pigs, rats. As there had been no native predators from which to flee, these birds had usually lost their flight ability, as well as taking to nesting on the ground; fatal evolutionary roads once man and his companions arrived.
Edited by: Arturo on Dec 2, 2012 10:08 PM
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Melvyn Douglas did inherit a number of roles meant for William Powell around the turn of the 30s to 40s decade. Most significantly, he got to costar with Garbo in Lubitsch's sparkingly NINOTCHKA.
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*Recently, I have been watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Netflix. It was so fantastic to catch Edmund Gwenn in an installment from 1957 two years before his death (it was his last professional role). Also, there was another one with Claude Rains I watched, and it turns out he did several guest-starring turns on this show. In some of the user reviews, people write things like 'over-the-hill movie star did this for the paycheck.' Maybe so, or perhaps it was because they still loved acting and wanted to perform for as long as they could.*
*I can easily see William Powell doing an AHP or an episode of Wagon Train.*
Many movie personalities started doing TV, specifically anthology series and dramas, around the mid-50s. This made it acceptable for movie stars to go on the rival medium (prior to that some movie moguls even takled of blackisting errant stars), especially as the collapsing movie industry made it increasingly difficult to make a living soley from movies for many. The difference between Powell and the aforementioned Gwenn and Rains, is that Powell was always a top movie star for at least 20 years, whereas Rains was a leading man and supporting actor, but never a star of Powell's stature; Gwenn was a supporting player. It was easier for them to transition to working on the small screen. Plus, Powell was keen on protecting his, and must've felt that it would've been cheapened. With his illnesses, there was no point in continuing, so it wasn't a matter of extending his career on any medium, but bowing out while still at the top.
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From the FMC Website:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 3:
7:40 am EST, 4:40 AM PST:
A ROYAL SCANDAL
Russia's Catherine the Great falls in love with a handsome young army officer who is really a revolutionary plotting her downfall.
Cast: Anne Baxter, Charles Coburn, Vincent Price, Tallulah Bankhead, William Eythe
Director: Otto Preminger
1945
9:20 AM EST, 6:20 AM PST:
WHAT A WAY TO GO!
A young woman (MacLaine) wants love and not money, so she marries poor men... but they all promptly become rich and die, leaving her a wealthier widow.
Cast: Shirley Maclaine, Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Dick Van dyke, Robert Cummings
Director: J. Lee Thompson
1964
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4:
4:45 AM EST, 1:45 AM PST:
IT SHOULDN'T HAPPEN TO A DOG
A reporter who wants to solve crimes gets into comic scrapes with a beautiful stranger and a misunderstood dog.
Cast: Allyn Joslyn, Carole Landis, Harry Morgan
Director: Herbert I. Leeds
1946
7:30 AM EST, 4:30 AM PST:
BACHELOR FLAT:
A college professor moves into his fiancee's apartment to get away from the female students who are pursuing him, but his plan to scare the girls away backfires when his fiancee's daughter arrives home incognito.
Cast: Terry-thomas, Tuesday Weld, Richard Beymer, Celeste Holm, Howard Mcnear, John William
Director: Frank Tashlin
1962
Edited by: Arturo on Dec 2, 2012 2:23 PM
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LimaCasey wrote:
However, my imagination does not extend to William Powell being paired with Myrna Loy in *Airport 1975*. To be honest, I feel embarrassed to see Ms. Loy in the role she got in that one.
LC, besides Powell's paramount reason of health, the above statement illustrates his fear of continuing, as mentioned on theads for a couple of others who retired while on top, namely to preserve his legacy. Powell knew that as an elderly man, leading roles woul no longer be coming his way; he already had a supporting role with featured billing in 1953s HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. Why drag out a career whose trajectory was painfuklly clear to him?
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*In the previous post, jamesjazzguitar asked what types of commercialism I would find acceptable on TCM. The honest answer is 'none.' I think that if people, rich or poor, are paying a cable bill then it should be a straight service. It should be absent of advertising. Otherwise, we are paying to receive advertising and that is ridiculous.*
I don;t know about you, but of the HUNDREDS of cable channels I receive, the only ones that DON'T have advertising of any sort are the premium channels that I choose to pay extra to receive. I would much rather TCM offer commercials of new dvd releases of studio era movies, than have to raise revenue by selling commecial space to interrupt the movies several times an hour. Perfectly compatible advertising with what the channel offers is a win-win in my book.
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Topbilled wrote:
*missw,*
*I am going to take exception with your comment that was Posted: Dec 1, 2012 1:18 PM (Arizona time).*
*I believe in other posts in this thread or elsewhere you have said you did not watch TCM from the beginning, so it seems peculiar for you to keep offering up your views when you are readily admitting you have not seen the whole story from the beginning. This is like someone coming in on the middle of a movie and telling others how they should interpret the ending without having seen what came in the beginning.*
Topbilled,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you state that you didn't get TCM untl about 2009 or so?
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*I am a big fan of Don Ameche. Love the guy! But I have never seen "Sleep My Love" 1948 also starring Colbert and Robert Cummings. I understand that Ameche is really good in this one and I don't think I've ever seen him in an evil role.*
*It kind of sounds like "Gaslight". I'm guessing it was a 20th Century Fox film which would explain TCM not having shown it in the past.*
*Anybody know this film?*
SLEEP MY LOVE was released by United Artists, and was made by Mary Pickford's Triangle Productions (she and husband Buddy Rogers wrote the theme song). I have never seen this, but I did grow up seeing Amche in an evil role, from many TV showings of PICTURE MOMMY DEAD (1966), with Martha Hyer and Zsa-zsa Gabor (I recorded it recently, not sure if from TCM). Anyway, I guess SML was Ameche's first bad role, because one reviewer wrote something to the effect that "I wouldn't be more surprised if I saw Shirley Temple do a striptease."
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FROM THE FOX MOVIE CHANNEL WEBSITE:
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1:
6 AM EST, 3 AM PST:
TENDER IS THE NIGHT
An adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story of a wealthy American (Jason Robards) living among the jet set in Europe between the wars.
Cast: Jason jr. Robards, Jennifer Jones, Tom Ewell, Joan Fontaine, Jill St. joh
Director: Henry King
1962
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2:
10:00 am EST, 7 AM PST:
LONGEST DAY, THE
The Allied Invasion of Europe on June 6, 1944, is retold with an all-star cast.
Cast: Sean Connery, Stuart Whitman, Robert Mitchum, Robert Wagner, Robert Ryan, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Rod Steiger, Richard Burton, Richard Beymer, Eddie Albert, Paul Anka, Tommy Sands, Curt Jurgens, Mel Ferrer, Alexander Knox, Fabian, Gert Frobe, Sal Mineo, Red Buttons, Steve Forrest, Peter Lawford, Jeffrey Hunter, Roddy Mcdowall
Director: Andrew Marton
1962
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*I wish they would offer for sale the episodes of the mid-50s TV series they aired some 8-10 years ago, "20th Century-Fox Hour", with wraparounds by Robert Wagner...that I would buy in a heartbeat.*
PS - I wish TMC would sell collections of the series they aired last year, the Studio Director;'s Showcase (or whatever it was called), because I would love to own them.
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I don't have the money to buy endless DVDs, but I try to buy as many as I can. I definitely appreciate that TCM is making more and more available, especially of movies not previously available. I record as much as I can, but with no DVR device, I can only get one in the daytime hours while I;m at work. I much rather TCM generates revenue the way they do than become AMC, ruining its movies with constant commercial breaks (too bad we;re not in that alternate universe where the AMC of old, which I loved, still existed as a worthy, complementary channel to TCM, showing its Fox, RKO and Paramount classics that it would, commercial free and uncut). OR Fox Movie Channel, with its horrendous "original" programming consisting of promotions for TV shows on sister stations or its new movies, PLUS half is now devoted to FXM with newer movies shown with commercial interruption....and on the classis half (which doesnt show all that many movies pre-1970) they don't even have time for the clips with commentary right before the movie started, or even the closing series of successive Fox logos. THEY should be offering the new series of Fox Archive Classics, promoting them on-air. Better yet, I wish they would offer for sale the episodes of the mid-50s TV series they aired some 8-10 years ago, "20th Century-Fox Hour", with wraparounds by Robert Wagner...that I would buy in a heartbeat.
My point is that the dissemination of more previously unavailable movies from the past is a great thing, especially when each of the new technologies coming along, like Blu-Ray, will offer the classics the general public is most familiar: GWTW, CASABLANCA. etc. The large majority of studio era titles that came out on DVD will never come out on Blu-ray, just like the large majority of same that came out VHS did not come out on DVD. So the more titles available commercially the better. ESPECIALLY if it keeps TCM from going the way of AMC or FMC
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*Based on the replies, I agree with Sanfan and you that since one can assume this was the first time the guy (Garbo's dancing partner), had heard the word, it is NOT logical that he would change how he pronounces it.*
Thank you. My point exactly.
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just to clarify...It's not just out-and-out wrong pronunciations I'm looking for, although these can be interesting, but when people in the same movie, same scene even, will give different pronunciations for a word,
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This is a great idea. Question: Would the concept concentrate on showing their 40s movies, or include some from other decades. If the former, then the chosen stars woud have to have enough movies to cover a 24 hour period (assuming that each would get 24 hours). If possible, I would include a few other names here,and to make room for them, remove some of the superstars with decades-long careers, since they are always going to be spotlighted, like Bette Davis,Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert and Kate Hepburn so that we can have the likes of:
Eleanor Parker
June Haver
Alexis Smith
Susan Hayward
Lizabeth Scott
Jane Greer
Ava Gardner
Esther Williams
Theresa Russell
Eleanor Powell
Joan Leslie
Deanna Durbin
Maria Montez
Yvonne De Carlo
Gail Russell
Not to mention the numerous "lesser" lights who toiled in mostly unheralded productions, including
Lois Albritton
Adele Jergens
Janet Blair
Evelyn Keyes
Marguerite Chapman
Lynn Bari
Nancy Kelly
Evekyn Ankers
Gloria Jean
Vivian Blaine
Mary Beth Hughes
Virginia Gilmore
Carole Landis
Frances Langford
Nina Foch
Marjorie Weaver
Susannah Foster
Simone Simon
.....Among others. The list is endless, Maybe it could be a year round tribute lol.
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*I believe it was a grievous mistake in a movie to have a character hear a word new to them and then pronounce it as if they had seen it in print.*
This reminds me of a humorous anecdote when I was in college, or shortly thereafter. Among my acquaintances then were a couple of people that were each friends with a (different) friend of mine. Both were of Mexican descent and spoke fluent Spanish. Well Benny had no problem in pronouncing the girl's name, Higia (approximate to English something like Ee-hya). He did this for several years while we were a part of the same circle. One day, he saw Higia's name written down, and never pronounced it correctly again ( I guess he didn't read Spanish much, if at all). From then on it was Hi-GEE-ya, with the final vowel the indeterminate schwa as opposed to the clear Spanish A. It was an eye-opener to me that he could no longer say it even remotely right.
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Jamesjazzguitar wrote:
*Like Garbo my wife is from Europe and she speaks 4 languages so she will pronounce foreign type of words as if they were spoken in the native language. But often many Americans will pronounce them using the English vowel sounds. e.g. I as I instead of 'E' for an Italian word.*
Well, JJG, I totally get what you're saying here. But it's not that the character is less sophisticated so much, as the ACTOR who pronounced it this way because that's what he's used to. My issue with this is that since Garbo's character just told his character the name of the dance, he turns around and changes the pronunciation. This would not have happened in reality, UNLESS the character had seen it written down. Logically, he would have turned around and started to tell others the dance's name as close as possible to how Garbo's character had told him.
dpompper wrote:
*Certainly, I'm no expert . . . and wonder if this kind of thing is considered a "continuity" issue? Anyone?*
I don't know if this would be a continuity issue. My understanding of this term is to make sure people had their hair, makeup or costumes done or worn the same in the same scene, as they go for another take or camera angle, or resume filming on another day. things of this nature.
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Last night while watching TWO-FACED WOMAN I noticed (again) an instance of something that has always bothered me; namely, different cast members pronouncing the same word differently. As Garbo was dancing, she answered her partner that the dance was called "La Chica-Choca", pronouncing it pretty much as it would be in Spanish, with the CHO syllable having a Long O with no dipthongization. Her partner spread the word that the dance was the "Chica-CHAW-ca". Obvioulsy it was the actor, being an actor, who read the word as such on his script. It seems to me that prior to filming the scene, they would have come to a consensus on how to pronounce this, with the director possibly being the final word on how to say the word. In this instance it's particularly glaring (to me at least) because Garbo had just TOLD him what it was, and he CHANGED it as he repeated it. It's not an instance of an organic change, like the "Telephone" game, but rather something deliberate, BY THE ACTOR, something that helps break the delicate balance that is suspension of disbelief.
I know I can be (and have been accused here of being) tediously technical about minute (pronounced MY-Nute) details, but does anyone else have a similar reaction? Better yet, can anyone think of other movie instances of a similar nature (I'm at work and typing this furtively, so none are coming to me at the moment).
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I actually don't HATE The Bishop's Wife , but I'm not one of those who wistfully hold it in high regard. *And I certainly DON'T consider it really a holiday movie.*
Huh? Not consider it a holiday movie?! How do you figure It takes place at Christmastime, it disusses the birth of Christ and the meaning of the first Christmas, and the contemporary dichotomy of celebrating these christian values as the true meaning of the season, as opposed to the commercialization of same. It's a sublimely perfect movie fit for the season.
LINDA DARNELL for Star of the Month October 2013
in General Discussions
Posted
I don't think so, as SOTM, But several theoretically can....If TCM was able to show enough of their films, from Fox and elsewhere, for SUTS, then there should be enough available for SOTM. These would include Power, Monroe, Darnell and Gene Tierney. Others could be Warner Baxter, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Anne Baxter and Jeanne Crain. Some spent a significant time at Fox, but did more elsewhere, including Loretta Young, Henry Fonda, Cornel Wilde, Dana Andrews, Richard Widmark, Richard Conte, among others.
Edited by: Arturo on Dec 4, 2012 9:32 AM