Arturo
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Posts posted by Arturo
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*Tyrone Power is too femme for me in this role*
I didn't get this, and frankly I don't think I understand what you mean?
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I may have seen it many times, and own the DVD, but it's always a joy to watch this classic movie. It has it all...A great cast, from the stars to many top character actors, beautiful locations, breathtaking technicolor, and a compelling story. Opening in January 1939, it not only ushered in the revival and rehabilitation of the western as an A feature, but also a year of so many memorable classic movies. JESSE JAMES is an essential IMHO.
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*Why just stars?*
*I think they need to brach out and include auteurs and directors instead of just clinging to the catch phrase Summer Under the Stars. One aspect that I feel that TCM emphasizes too much is the star concept at the expense of great movies that don't have to have a Hollywood star.*
I think this is a TERRIBLE idea. At the risk of sounding obvious, redundant or repetitive, this month is for MOVIE Stars, not star directors....Orson Welles would qualify,Hitchcock would not. TCM already does tributes to directors, sometimes a month long. If you scroll down this thread, you'll see the names of many MOVIE Stars that have NEVER been featured, and others featured surprisingly little. Let's not make it even more difficult on who is featured and who isn't by opening up the concept, unless SUTS expands to two or more months (and even then I'd be opposed to have directors).
For those stars that have been featured often, I agree with the suggestion to have little seen films instead of the usual suspects....this is possible in most instances, and if TCM does a diligent search and/or helps out in rights issues, we can see many premieres in the years ahead.
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I am thrilled that one of my favorite actors is finally getting his Summer Under The Stars tribute. Especially since TCM viewers will get a chance to see some of his 20th Century Fox movies. However, as someone here mentioned, Tyrone Power's early movies are underrepresented. None of his early swashbuckling classics: THE MARK OF ZORRO or THE BLACK SWAN. None of his 30s screwball/romantic comedies: LOVE IS NEWS, CAFE METROPOLE, SECOND HONEYMOON, DAYTIME WIFE. None of his big historical dramas or musicals from the 30s/early 40s: LLOYD'S OF LONDON (although it was featured here on Freddie Bartholomew's SUTS), IN OLD CHICAGO, ALEXANDER'S RAGTIME BAND, SUEZ, BRIGHAM YOUNG. If fact, other than the classic JESSE JAMES, nothing at all from the 1930s.
Since most of these movies are with Fox, TCM rarely plays them. This seems to be an excellent reason to feature Ty as an upcoming Star of the Month....plenty of movies that can be shown in a monthlong tribute, to give a well-rounded, representative career roundup (I didn't even mention most of his many other films from the 40s and 50s that are not featured today). And as many of his movies will be TCM premieres, it will be a win-win situation for both fans and casual viewers.
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*I saw JOHNNY APOLLO within the last two years. I guess it was on FMC.*
JOHNNY APOLLO had been meant to hve been another reteaming of Alice Faye and Tyrone Power; they had most recently been seen together the previous year in ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE, where Power also played a gangster (it was loosely based on Fanny Brice's story). But Faye was unavailable, so Zanuck had to get a replacement. Both Linda Darnell and Nancy Kelly (recent Power costars) were considered, but neither was known as a singer or dancer, which was needed for the part (Linda, going on 16, would have also had her image altered very early if she had played the gun moll, problably another reason she wasn't given it). A perfect otion IMHO, although she maight not have been under contract anymore to Fox, was Phyllis Brooks, the blonde beauty recently in the news as Cary grant's girlfriend. And although she had performed as a singer on the screen, seems that the studio saw her only as a featured player, not a leading lady. Could've been a big break for her.
Ironically, 20th was about to sign the perfect person for the part, Betty Grable, then making waves on Broadway. In fact, she would replace Faye a number of times inthe next few years, including her breakthrough role in DOWN ARGENTINE WAY, later that year.
Anyway, the studio ended up borrowing a very good Dorothy Lamour from Paramount. She is great, especially in the "Dancing for nickels and Dimes"-wow...what legs!!!.
Ironically, later that year, another movie meant for Power and Faye, BROOKLYN BRIDGE, was done for the B unit as TALL DARK AND HANDSOME, where Cesar Romero played another gangster, albeit in a runyonesque comic vein. Virginia Gilmore played the female lead (another pair of great legs). It turned out so well that the studio gave it an A promotional budget and it played A dates.
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*I'm especially looking forward to Johnny Apollo - that will almost complete my "Johnny" collection ( there are several movies with "Johnny" something or other as the title.)*
This is the first of the 40s Johnny movies, opening as it did in early 1940. However, I much prefer its original title, "Dance With The Devil"...sounds more noirish....
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*I'm especially looking forward to Johnny Apollo - that will almost complete my "Johnny" collection ( there are several movies with "Johnny" something or other as the title.)*
This is the first of the 40s Johnny movies, opening as it did in early 1940. However, I much prefer its original title, "Dance With The Devil"...sounds more noirish....
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*I'm especially looking forward to Johnny Apollo - that will almost complete my "Johnny" collection ( there are several movies with "Johnny" something or other as the title.)*
This is the first of the 40s Johnny movies, opening as it did in early 1940. However, I much prefer its original title, "Dance With The Devil"...sounds more noirish....
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*I thought when I saw him in "Ninotchka" I thought him more of a drama star.*
NINOTCHKA is considered a comedy, hence MGM's tag-line"Garbo Laughs". Melvyn Douglas gives a wonderfully comic performance in this sparkling comedy.
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jamesjazzguitar wrote:
*I believe Douglas was under contract with MGM and this could be why Dunne and him were never re-teamed. But yes, their chemistry is off the charts, and this is a very enjoyable movie.*
TopBilled wrote:
*He did AND SO THEY WERE MARRIED the same year (with Mary Astor) at Columbia. The next year he made WOMEN OF GLAMOUR at Columbia with Virginia Bruce and two years after that he and Miss Bruce made THERE'S THAT WOMAN AGAIN at Columbia. Plus, around this time he made three pictures with Joan Blondell at Columbia.*
*My guess is that his contract was shared between L.B. Mayer and Harry Cohn. Irene Dunne, meanwhile, was still working at RKO, but she did several films besides THEODORA GOES WILD for Columbia.*
Actually, Melvyn Douglas went under contract to Columbia in 1935, after his success in SHE MARRIED HER BOSS. In 1936, he was one of the few to come out unscathed from the debacle that was THE GORGEOUS HUSSY (the other was Beulah Bondi). MGM offered to share his contract with Columbia, whose boss, Harry Cohn, saw the MGM machine as a way to give MD top projects with that studio's many female stars, thereby making him a more valuable property at little cost to them. MGM did use him occasionally to replace an ill or reluctant William Powell, in such movies as ARSIN LUPIN RETURNS, NINOTCHKA and THIRD FINGER, LEFT HAND.
Irene Dunne was no longer under contract to RKO; it expired with the completion of 1935's ROBERTA. She signed a short-term contract with Universal, and in short order, one picture a year pacts with Columbia and Paramount, and eventually RKO.
I agree that Dunne and Douglas should have been re-teamed in another felicitous screwball comedy.
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LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL is an ok comedy; it is known as Colbert's last comedy, but is best known for one of Marilyn Monroe's early supporting roles. A young Robert Wagner is also featured.
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From the FMC Website:
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25:
6:00 amEST, 3 AM PST:
RALLY 'ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS!
Social comedy about the women of a small town called Putnam's Landing and the ruckus they cause while trying to stop a missle base from being installed.
*Cast:* Paul Newman, Joan Collins, Jack Carson, Dwayne Hickman, Joanne Woodward
*Director:* Leo Mccarey
1958
8:00 am EST, 5 AM PST:
THE PRIDE OF ST. LOUIS
A biography of Hall of Fame pitcher, Dizzy Dean (Dailey).
*Cast:* Dan Dailey, Richard Crenna, James Brown, Joanne Dru, Hugh Sanders
*Director:* Harmon Jones
1952
9:35 am EST. 6:35 PST:
FOLLOW THE SUN
Golf champion Ben Hogan (Ford) fights to walk again after an accident.
*Cast:* Anne Baxter, Glenn Ford, Larry Keating, Sam Snea
*Director:* Sidney Lanfield
1951
SUNDAY, AUGUST 26:
6:00 am EST, 3 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 Williams
*Director:* Frank Tashlin
1962
MONDAY, AUGUST 27:
4:50 am EST, 1:50 AM PST:
SURF PARTY
A group of kids get together in Malibu to party and surf, riling up the local police.
*Cast:* Bobby Vinton, Jackie Deshannon, Patricia Morrow, Kenny Miller
*Director:* Maury Dexter
1964
7:30 am EST, 4:30 PST:
THREE BRAVE MEN
A veteran Navy Civil Service employee (Ernest Borgnine), a lawyer (Ray Milland), and a military man (Frank Lovejoy) rally to combat the communist witch hunt after a government worker is fired and blacklisted.
*Cast:* Ernest Borgnine, Ray Milland, Dean Jagger, Frank Lovejoy, Nina Foch
*Director:* Philip Dunne
1957
9:00 am EST, 6 AM PST:
PANIC IN THE STREETS
A medical officer (Richard Widmark) races against time after he discovers two gun-happy hoodlums (Zero Mostel and Jack Palance) are running around the streets of New Orleans carrying the virus to a deadly new plague.
*Cast:* Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Jack Palance, Barbara Bel geddes, Zero Mostel
*Director:* Elia Kazan
1950
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28:
6:00 am EST, 3 AM PST:
LET'S MAKE IT LEGAL
After twenty years of marriage Miriam (Claudette Colbert) is fed up with Hugh's (MacDonald Carey) gambling and foolishness and their divorce is imminent, but when her rich old flame shows up, Hugh attempts to win her love back.
*Cast:* Claudette Colbert, Macdonald Carey, Zachary Scott, Robert Wagner, Marilyn Monroe
*Director:* Richard Sale
1951
7:30 am EST, 4:30 AM PST:
WE'RE NOT MARRIED
Due to a technical glitch, five couples discover that they are not legally married.
*Cast:* Marilyn Monroe, Ginger Rogers, Mitzi Gaynor, James Gleason, Paul Stewart, Eve Arden, Fred Allen, Eddie Bracken, Zsa zsa Gabor, David Wayne, Walter Brennan, Jane Darwell, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern
*Director:* Edmund Goulding
1952
9:00 am EST, 6 AM PST:
ISLAND IN THE SUN
Interracial love blossoms between two couples on a West Indies island.
*Cast:* Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, James Mason, Joan Fontaine
*Director:* Robert Rossen
1957
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*About Summer under the Stars: tomorrow is Tyrone Power day, I like him. Too bad they apparently couldn't get the rights to show Nightmare Alley.*
At the risk of showing up a fellow poster, Tyrone Power's SUTS day is Saturday.
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*Magnani and Signoret might not have substantial enough filmographies to get SUTS days;*
Are you kidding? Both stars were in dozens of movies. Maybe you mean English language films, although SUTS would play any of their movies, provided, as you say, that they were able to clear the rights
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*Magnani and Signoret might not have substantial enough filmographies to get SUTS days;*
Are you kidding? Both stars were in dozens of movies. Maybe you mean English language films, although SUTS would play any of their movies, provided, as you say, that they were able to clear the rights
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One of Ginger Roger's better later roles IMHO (although I like it for being one of Clifton Webb's best vehicles) will be on early Friday morning. Here is what I posted in the Upcoming 20th Century Fox Movies thread:
HBO Signature:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24:
5:25 AM:
DREAMBOAT (1952) Clifton Webb as staid middle aged professor horrified to find his past coming to haunt him, namely his silent pictures when he was a matinee idol-"Dreamboat". Ginger Rogers as his long ago costar, and Anne Francis as his daughter, add to the fun.
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HBO Signature:
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24:
5:25 AM:
DREAMBOAT (1952) Clifton Webb as staid middle aged professor horrified to find his past coming to haunt him, namely his silent pictures when he was a matinee idol-"Dreamboat". Ginger Rogers as his long ago costar, and Anne Francis as his daughter, add to the fun.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 25:
3:00 AM:
DEADLINE USA (1952): drama with Humphrey Bogart as a newspaper editor and Etherl Barrymore as the paper's owner being pressured to kill that investigative story. With Kim Hunter as Bogie's wife.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22:
HBO Signature:
2:00 AM:
DEADLINE USA (1952): drama with Humphrey Bogart as a newspaper editor and Etherl Barrymore as the paper's owner being pressured to kill that investigative story.
CineMax:
4:00 AM:
DESK SET (1957); Enjoyable batte of the sexes and man vs technology in the research dept. of a TV station. With Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Joan Blondell and Gig Young.
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22:
HBO Signature:
2:00 AM:
DEADLINE USA (1952): drama with Humphrey Bogart as a newspaper editor and Etherl Barrymore as the paper's owner being pressured to kill that investigative story.
CineMax:
4:00 AM:
DESK SET (1957); Enjoyable batte of the sexes and man vs technology in the research dept. of a TV station. With Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Joan Blondell and Gig Young.
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Either his wife Annabella was on the East Coast, or he was. The point is they were separated, he was on leave (or maybe not yet deployed), and the opportunity arose for the relationship. Judy's possessiveness, pregnancy (and forced abortion) led to the demise of the relationship. Those were pretty much the same issues that ended the Power-Turner affair as well.
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*I was wondering why they did not have Dick Haynes star in the movie instead of Donald O'Connor. Donald O'Connor had a nice voice but not what I think of as exceptional. And I thought he was a bit miscast to be Vera-Ellen's boyfriend. Does anyone know why Donald O'Connor was cast in the movie and not Dick Haynes?*
While Dick Haymes had some success in the mid 40s as a crooner and then star of musicals at 20th Century Fox (which filmed CMM), in the early 50s he was washed up as a viable movie personality. He was about to embark on a tempestuous marriage to Rita Hayworth (would Rita have it any other way?), which would cause headlines and grief for Harry Cohn over at Columbia, Rita's studio. One, because Rita would forget about movie making for the duration of the marriage. Two, because she insisted that Dick be cast in a big-budget biblical epic (JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN) with her, or else she wouldn't do it (it was never made). In 1953 Haymes followed his wife to Hawaii, where she was filming MISS SADIE THOMPSON. He was held from re-entering the US proper, and was going to be deported as an undesirable alien (spousal abuse was also a factor). The point is Haymes was not available, and if he had been, Zanuck was not about to offer him an important role in CMM.
O'Connor, on the other hand, had just scored a huge personal success in SINGING IN THE RAIN, so it was a no-brainer that 20th offered him the role. If you think he was an unsuitable partner as Vera-Allen's BF, he was much more compatible with her than his next partner at Fox, Marilyn Monroe in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS. BTW, another costar in TNBLSB, Mitzi Gaynor, had once been touted for the Vera-Allen role in CMM; I wonder what happened with that.
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*And according to the lead page on TCM, Bette Davis supplanted her? Sad.*
What actually happened was that WB and Kay had a long running feud, ever since they cut up her role in WONDER BAR, or something like that. She was their biggest female star through the mid-30s, but in 1937, while still the queen of the lot, she had very acrimonious contract talks with the studio. She got what she wanted, but an angry and vengeful Jack Warner decided to break her. First, the studio announced (in the trade papers!) that they were gonna have Kay complete her expensive contract doing B films. She was subsequently given terrible scripts, and stories bought for her (TOVARICH, THE SISTERS) were reassigned to other actresses. She was photographed unflatteringly, had dialogue full of 'r's, starred in movies where she was billed under the title, and in general treated shabbily. Publicly, she put on a brave face and did the crappy movies she was given (the studio thought she would walk out on her contract), but the treatment they meted out to her broke her heart, and her spirit.
Bette Davis did inherit her role as queen of the Warner's lot.
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*Warren William, looking pleased as punch over something, and Tyrone Power*
The shot of Warren William and Ty Power I believe is a still from 1939's DAYTIME WIFE, also starring 15 year old Linda Darnell as the title character, Binnie Barnes and Joan Davis. I think they looked pleased as punch because Darnell (Power's wife) has just convinced Warren William's wife that they and Barnes are not having a wild night, but are wrapping up a business deal (Darnell and Barnes are William's and Power's secretaries, respectively).
*Relationships with Lana Turner and Judy Garland were around the corner for Power, followed by marriage to Mexican actress Linda Christian.*
Actually, my understanding is that Power and Garland's relationship happened earlier, say 1943-44, and was well over by 1946. The Power-Turner affair, however, was about to heat up magazine covers and gossip columns for the next year or so.
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*willbefree25 wrote: Since Kim Kardashian is a 'star', I suppose that makes her SUT*S* worthy next year. Sad people.*
Again, I am not a fan of Elvis as movie star. However, he WAS a movie star, and for over ten years churned 2-3 movies yearly, that were highly profitable as they were seen by his legions of fans. KK is in the midst of her 15 minutes, and as far as I know about her, she isn't a singer or a movie star, so the comparison to Elvis is specious. And since she is NOT a movie star, WHY would she ever rate a SUTS? While she might end up surprising with her longevity, I don't think she'll be the iconic presence in 50 years that Elvis is right now.
*Kardashian isn't a good comparison but I would say Madonna is.. she did movies but no one cared*
Madonna is one that DID surprise in her longevity, due to smarts in periodically stirring up controversy by pushing the sexuality envelope, and reinventing herself. However, while she has starred in movies for over 25 years, she is not a movie star... as Dargo says, nobody cared... Her choices have been all over the map critically and financially, and its a case or her dabbling in it whenever she feels like it, so she never connected on a regular basis with moviegoers.
Call Me Madam
in General Discussions
Posted
Have no idea why Merman wasn't in the movie versions of "Gypsy" and "Annie Get Your Gun"?
Probably had to do with studio politics, and the availability of Merman to do the flicks...
Plus Merman was very picky about what she did...
Well, Ethel Merman did a stint in Hollywood in the late 1930s, and was widely perceived as having failed in Hollywood. It was felt her personality was outsized for the large screen, that someone used to projecting for the cheap seats was unable to tone it down for a medium with more intimacy and immediacy. Her looks were also not considered attractive enough, and the moguls rightly felt she had no pull at the boxoffice. Her successes on Broadway were usually seen as potential vehicles for their women stars, and CMM excepted, I don't think she was ever given the opportunity to re-create one on the big screen. CMM WAS successful, and Fox assigned her another star part, in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, but only when Betty Grable turned in down and Alice Faye refused to leave her home life for it. But surrounded by an all-star cast, headed by Marilyn Monroe, it could hardly be said that its success was due to Merman.