Arturo

Dang, And I just bought a miniature mirrored disco ball last Black Friday for my then upcoming Disoco party. btw, it was Robin, not Barry, Gibb.

Paaul Le Mat was in the sequel MORE AMERICAN GRAFFITTI. Plus I enjoyed him in ALOHA BOBBY AND ROSE and CITIZEN'S BAND, along with MELVIN AND HOWARD. So while nothing as compelling as AG, all were well received and Inthink he got a Golden Globe nomination for M&H. Not too shabby, and while obviously not a mega-star, he isn't quite a one hit wonder methinks.

Jean Harlow in SARATOGA James Dean in GIANT Marilyn Monroe AND Clark Gable in THE MISFITS Grace Kelly in HIGH SOCIETY Clara Bow in HOOPLA Judy Holliday in BELLS ARE RINGING Spencer Tracy in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER

Misswonderly wrote: TikiSoo, oddly enough, since I am a Pretenders fan, I was unfamiliar with that song until someone posted it in one of the music threads ( quite a while ago.) The music is good, but the words are heart-breaking, so true- the singer is so bewildered and sad that her beloved town has been so altered. Thank you for posting the lyrics. Misswonderly, I believe this song "My City Was Gone", was on their third album, LEARNING TO CRAWL. Tikisoo wrote: A O, WAY TO GO, OHIO. Tiki, I always thought that the lyric said, HEY HO, WHERE'D YOU GO OHIO. Along with The Kinks' classic VILLAGE GREEN . . . album, bemoaning the modern age and hoping for a return to a pastoral Britain, flamboyant Mexican pop genius Juan Gabriel wrote an album (well it was the cd age) some time in th mid to late 90s, where he also railed against the changes wrought in modern Mexico, from the global influence on the culture, to the loss of traditions and traditional homes and streetscapes in the pueblos. He was quite strident at times, reflecting the passion he felt for the cumulative effects of these changes. Quite a departure from his usual romantic pop songs or rancheras (although the music was traditional Mexican/Latin forms). Edited by: Arturo on May 21, 2012 12:30 AM

Doña Marina was a real person. Cortez picked her up during a stop in Yucatan. She spoke Mayan, Spanish, and Aztec, and she helped him communicate with the Indians between Vera Cruz and the Aztec headquarters at Mexico City (the Aztec city on the island). She was of Aztec parentge, but had been sold into slavery. A talented linguist, she learned Yucateco, the Mayan language of the peninsula, and added it to her native Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, among others. After she became part of the Cortez expedition, she quickly learned Spanish, and cut out the need for another interepreter. She was crucial in warning Cortez after overhearing plans for them being massacred by the Cholutecas, while ostensible guests of Moctezuma at the large pilgramage city of Cholula, upon on the Central Plateau on the other side of the famous voclanic peaks from the valley of Anahuac, and the capital of Tenochtitlan. Her warning allowed the Spaniards to strike first and massacre their hosts. She is better known by her name of La Malinche, itself an hispanicized version of the Nahuatl name of Malintzin. She became Cortes' mistress, and bore him a(t least one) son. She is considered a traitor to her people, and the term Malinchista means a Mexican who prefers something (or someone) foreign over that which is native. At best she is given her due as the symbolic beginning of the mixing of the two cultures and races (mestizaje), and the birth of Mexican people and culture

Martha Vickers, who played Carmen in *The Big Sleep* was surely a "one hit wonder." She only made a couple of other films, and they certainly weren't "hits." Martha Vickers did score in THE BIG SLEEP, her first film at WB (she had bit parts and featured roles previously under her name of Martha MacVicar). After, TBS, Warner's advertised her as a "young Bette Davis" but only gave her a handful of supporting roles, mostly in comedies and musicals. While these were successful for the most part, she was soon freelancing. In 1949 she married Mickey Rooney and was off the screen for several years. After the marriage failed, she did mostly TV work. But yes, that initial impact in THE BIG SLEEP did not lead to any other memorable roles. Edited by: Arturo on May 20, 2012 5:36 PM

Interesting that the other film with Cesar Romero, A GENTLEMAN AT HEART, had originally been intended by Fox as a late 30s screwball to feature either Tyrone Power or Don Ameche. When the studo finally produced it, it was done inexpensively by the studio's B unit. An enjoyable comedy, it is nearly as good as Romero's hit from a year earlier, the Runyonesque comedy-musical TALL DARK AND HANDSOME (another role originally pegged for Power). TD&H, another B, had turned out so well that the studio gave it an A-film promotional budget and playdates.

CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE, sumptuously filmed in beautiful Technicolor, was Tyrone Power's second film snce he returned from war duty, after THE RAZOR'S EDGE, and his first swashbuckler since 1942's THE BLACK SWAN. This very expensive production took so long to complete and release (something about a shortage of Technicolor stock), that Zanuck allowed Power his wanting to do NIGHTMARE ALLEY, a seedy noir, which filmed after CFC, was released first. Filming in Mexico of CAPTAIN included shots of Paricutin volcano in constant eruption mode (it was born in 1943, and remained active until 1952, leavin behind a classic cinder cone, and two buried towns-including a stone church partially buried by lava). Linda Darnell was originally cast to play Catana, but in a round of castingmusical chairs, when she was assigned to replace an inadequate Pegy Cummins in the troubled production of FOREVER AMBER, she lost out on this part, and newcomer Jean Peters got the plum assignment. Also features newcomer Barbara Lawrence, as Power's well bred girlfriend back home. Controversy of sorts was engendered when Lana Turner, then having an affair with Ty Power, flew to Mexico for a weekend to be with him, thereby potentially holdng up filming of her own epic, GREEN DOLPHIN STREET. Lana always onsidered Power as the love or her life, and was devastated when he broke it off after abou a year. Highly enjoyable movie. My only quibble, as a student of Mesoamerican history, are the less than accurate designs of the plastering on the temples.

Robert Williams was being acclaimed a new star with the release of PLATINUM BLONDE in 1931. He had made a handful of films before, and many yars on th stage, but it was this role that made him a star . . . Or it should have. He died within days of its release from a ruptured appendix.

Seems like this same topic drove a thread about a year or so ago.

Carol Burnett as Norma Desmond had me ****, for Bob Mackie literally gave her two bags of uncooked rice (or was it beans?) for her costume in their parody of Sunset Blvd. CasablancaLover, Carol Burnett's takeoff of Gloria Swanson's magnificent performance is known as NORA Desmond. It was apparently done as one of their spoofs of classic moves (MILDRED FIERCE, TORCHY SONG), but the response to it resulted in Nora Desmond becoming a semi-regular character on the show. Great fun.

Other busty classic movie stars include: Bette Davis, Carole Landis, Linda Darnell and Arleen Dahl. Of course the postwar period brought many chesty foreign stars: Silvana Mangano, Sofia Loren, anita Ekbert among many others. Abov e average include: Jeanne Crain, Anne Baxter, Maureen O'Hara, Joan Collins, Rita Hayworth, Mamie Van doren, Debra Paget,

Apparently, there is a new movie on this period of Mexican history. A coworker told me that it recently played here in L.A. in conjuction with a Latin-American (?) film festival. However, my mother passed a few weeks ago, and hospitalized for a couple of weeks prior, so I lost touch with goings-on around here. My coworker says it should be having a limited release in June. Don't know what the title is however.

*I'm not ruining it...I'm just interpreting it a different way* Early on, I asked TopBilled to clarify what he meant by "underrated beauties", and his response, while still a little vague, didn't seem to have anything to suggest Stu Sutcliffe, Pete Best, or George Harrison, or any other pre- or post-fame Beatles.

I am a big Henry Fonda fan. I agree that something about the classic movie stars that make it hard for today's stars to compare favorably. He could be a bit solemn at times, although I think it was called for in the role for which he SHOULD have won the Oscar, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. I prefer him when the part is comedic, as in THE LADY EVE. Yes, MIDNIGHT MARY with Loretta Young was a pre-code movie, released in 1933, She was also the leading lady in THE HATCHET MAN.

Irene Dunne Loretta Young Kay Francis Norma Shearer Rosalind Russell

Question to those here who are more savvy about these things: it's been mentioned that you can program the DVD recorder to record onto the disc only the lenght of a given movie, say. Does the recorder adjust the mode? In other words if the movie is 1:20 mins long, since this is too long for the 1 hr. Hi Def mode, will it record in the 2 hr. SHS mode, or a middle quality between the two modes?

Jake, Amen to your choices. Martha Hyer was ALWAYS sexy and elegant. Too bad she was usually cast in the "other woman" second lead. Jeanne Crain found fame in an image that was anything but the Elegant or Haughty . . . the Girl Next Door. In films like STATE FAIR, MARGIE, YOU WERE MEANT FOR ME, APARTMENT FOR PEGGY, CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, TAKE CARE OF MY LITTLE GIRL, BELLES ON THEIR TOES, etc. she was the Girl Next Door incarnate. Nothing sophisticated or elegant about the characters she played, in fact some were downright gauche. She DID fight for more adult roles, and was able to be cast successfully in some: A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, THE FAN, PINKY, THE MODEL AND THE MARRIAGE BROKER, PEOPLE WILL TALK, etc. But it was really until she begged out of her contract with Fox in 1954, and shifted her image to a more sexy one (she even held hr own against Jane Russell in GENTLEMEN MARRY BRUNETTES), with her hair dyed red, that she altered the girl next door image for good.

TheTrial; I agree with your choices. Madge Evans was both beautiful and talented, and probably suffered with her stay at M-"More stars than there are in heaven"-G-M, what with all that female star wattage in the 30s, she did not get the renown she deserved. Now June Haver WAS used as a backup to Betty Grable by Fox, should Grable falter with the public, or otherwise unable to complete commitments. In fact, June's last movie THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, had been assigned to Betty first, but she turned it down, and subsequently suspended. It turned out to be a long suspension, at a crucial time. Haver hurt herself doing a dance routine, and filming was put on hold . . . Grable remained on suspension for something like 8 months, until TGND was completed. Meanwhile, her de-facto successor, Marilyn Monroe, started her meteoric rise during this time, and inherited an important project bought for Grable, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. IMHO Haver was much prettier than Betty, and had a less brassy image, although she wasn't in her league as a dancer. She never quite succeeded Grable the way the studio intended, but they coexisted side by side, each a star of musicals a 20th, for nearly ten years. NOW for my pet peeve , , , TGND was most definitely NOT a 'B" film, but one of the studio's "A" budget productions for that year (1953). Edited by: Arturo on May 14, 2012 1:03 AM

I have long thought that Barbara Hale was an underrated beauty. She became so typecast on television, but for a long time she was a leading lady in films at RKO ... Topbilled, for clarification, do you mean this threadto be about actresses whose beauty is underrated, or whose career or reputation is underrated, then or now? Barbara Hale had one of hr best movie assignments IMHO on loan to 20th for 1950's THE JACKPOT. This comedy with James Stewart as the winner of same, with Barbara as his hapless and increasingly alarmed and exhasperated wife, is quite funny. It was head and shoulders above the run of the mill B's and programmers she was mostly assigned at RKO and Columbia.

Rhonda Fleming is another beauty who, like Yvonne De Carlo, found success in medium budgetted Technicolor adventure films (with that flaming red hair, it would have been a shame not to exploit her in color).

I don't think she had a huge film career; do you know of any other films she made, other than *Band of Angels* ? Thanks........ B-) GeminiGirl: Actually the exotic looking DeCarlo (she was no more exotic than Peggy Middleton of Vancouver British Columbia) was a popular leading lady of Universal's Technicolor action medium budgetters, taking over from Maria Montez in the mid-to-late 40s as that studio's star of mostly, as has been phrased "Westerns, Easterns and Caribbeans". Typical titles include: SALOME, WHERE SHE DANCED (1945), FRONTIER GAL (1945) SONG OF SCHEHERAZADE (1947) SLAVE GIRL (1947) RIVER LADY (1948) CALAMITY JANE AND SAM BASS (1949) THE GAL WHO TOOK THE WEST (1949) BUCCANEER'S GIRL (1950) THE DESERT HAWK (1950) This list of some of her Universal titles gives you an idea of the image and roles she portrayed, beautiful adventuress. Her 50s movies at other studios were basically in the same mold.

*Has anyone read the book Flesh and Fantasy by Penny Stallings?* I own this book. I recommend it! I too enjoyed tis book sin3 ear old kid I saved up and purchased it. Re: :Hollywood Babylon", trashy but curiously complelling reads. Take it witha grain of salt. I seem to recall that some years later Anger hada third installment ready to go, but the publisher backed off, due to some threats of litigation, supposedly over some of the dirt he included.

I too had programmed NLMG for a 90 minute block. What made me double-check TCM's monthly guide I'll never know. But I saw it was a few minutes longer. So I programmed my DVD recorder to start a minute earlier, and several minutes later. It worked just right . . . I caught the intro, whichwould have been missing, and it recorded until after it ended.

A great movie............if you search on youtube you will find Joanne and Paul and "What's my Line".........she is more famous that he was at the time of the taping of the episode. finance responded; It wasn't until CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, a year after THE THREE FACES OF EVE, that Newman probably surpassed Woodward in terms of fame. Actually, Paul was the bigger star from the get-go. He came to Hollywood starring in films in the mid50s, on a blaze of publicity as "the new Brando". At this time, Joanne was still doing TV and Broadway. her entrance into films was inauspicious by comparison, and it wasn't until EVE and the Oscar that she became well-known. Paul and Joanne's first costarring assignment, THE LONG HOT SUMMER, released shortly after the Oscar win, reflected the reality of the situation by top-starring Newman, the bigger star. This would remain the situation for the duration of their careers.