Arturo

Actually, rhe correct.plural in French.would have to have the number meet......so "films noirs".

Your second point about Film Noir is the correct one; French critics noticed similarities in American films made.during and after.WW2 with certain common traits, and defined and labeled the genre. So-called crime dramas and others have since been shoehorned into the noir genre.

The ending may not be quite noirish enough for us now, but when GILDA was being filmed.in 1945, the traits of what we now know as Film Noir were just being established; certainly, it had yet.to be identified and labeled as such. GILDA was just another crime (melo)drama, as many films.we've given the noir label were then considered, and with Columbia's top star.featured, I guess the studio didn't want to make her unrelentingly bad. Many years ago, I read an interesting small book called (or at least.was about) "Hollywood in the Forties". I believe it was a British book from the late 1960s. It did an overview of films by genre. I remember that it divided the "pure", "black" noirs, from other, less pure, "grey" films. There were others that were.considered more.melodramas than anything else. The difference would be the POV of the filmmaker, and if it was consistent to the end. GILDA was in the gray,.or.maybe not even that category. A very good, very enjoyable film nonetheless imho. It would take Orson Welles'.deconstruction of his wife's GILDA image in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI to give us a true noir. Of course, Harry Cohn was right from a commercial standpoint about not making Rita too evil;.that film.was a major flop.

Please don't tell me that Tor Johnston is an example of the sexier male stars back in the day.

o IP Sounds like the plot of THE NOTEBOOK.

Thanks Dargo, for both the pic and the tip.

Great pics Tom, thanks for sharing. A couple of comments: Marlene Dietrich pushed the androgynous look.at every opportunity. She probably had a closet full of tuxes, with or without tails. Porbably more than any other woman, she popularized slacks for women, with her mandrag. I thought Ouida was cute, but BOY did she pale next to Dolores Del Rio, and even next to Dietrich.

Not sure if they've been mentioned, but how about THELMA AND LOUISE, BADLANDS, PAPER MOON, A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL or DRIVING MISS DAISY. And there is more than one version of that road film STAGECOACH.

Well, it looks like it's the TCM programmers who CAN'T select 31 actors and actresses for August Summer Under the Stars, judging by the apparent delay in announcing the schedule. Lol.

Although it's considered a Rita Hayworth musical more than Gene Kelly's, what do you think of COVER GIRL (1944). This probably had the first inkling of Kelly's amazing dancing and choreographic talents on film.

Sorry, but I'm not good at pasting pics here, so just imagine......... BWIDGE ON THE WIVEW KWAI HAVOC Kay Francis is topbilled in this tale of World War II army nurses that are held captive by the Japanese in the Borneo jungle, and how they plan to blow up a supply bridge.

He was also set to star on THE TOR, THE BIG AND THE UGLY, but the producers revamped.the project and hired Clint Eastwood for it.

People here have expressed surprise when TORCH SONG (1953) has been shown, seeing Joan Crawford perform a number in blackface. On of Betty Grable's vehicles also had her doing a number in blackface; I think it might be MEET ME AFTER THE SHOW (1951). So going into the 50s it was still considered an acceptable practice. Probably with the advance of the civil rights movement in that decade and beyond, it became unacceptable.

Mariel Hemingway was in PERSONAL BEST(1982) as a track star who has a lesbian affair with another athlete on her team. And I think her film debut, in LIPSTICK (1976?), with big sister Margeaux, was controversial when that one came out, due to the rape and the vigilante type justice.

"Bases Loaded" was the script Holden's character had written, which Nancy Olsen's wanted to collaborate with him and work on aspects of the script. Norma Desmond's next script was her own "Salome", on which Joe was to do rewrite, not a butchering.

Oops! I read.the title wrong. I thought it said Johnny Nash, the reggae.sinver best known for "I Can See Clearly Now", and "Stir It Up". I thought this thread would go the way of other obituary threads on musical stars, get reported and get moved.

I want to say it has, maybe in the last year or so, but I don't really know.

Totally agree with all your comments re. THE LAST PICTURE SHOW; it captures bittersweetly the feel of small hamlets not only on the plains, but all over America, as they dried up along with opportunities. I saw completely for the first time THE LAST OF SHEILA, which I had only seen in parts. I can't say thst I really liked it, but it is so of its time, and had a great cast. This film gives me a nostalgia for when I was a child in the early 70s, and family, and everyone, dressed and looked like that. Otoh, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW had a built in nostalgia for an earlier, arguably simpler time, but the overriding feeling is that of sadness.

She was a pretty teenage ingenue at Warner Brothers, who had her 15 minutes for a couple of years during the war. She had costars like Bogart, Cooped, Morgan, Cagney, and on loan, Fred Astaire, in some important movies of the time. However, she didn't last long at the top; by the end of the war, the studio was promoting fresher faces. She also wanred more adult fare, but the studio wouldnt allow it. She sued fo be released from her contract, which was done,.but it seems that Jack Warner had her blacklisted. She remained busy making movies occasionally for various outfits for another decade or so. She also did much early tv.

I will check when I get a chance. I wanna say that the site where I found this set online, had a listing of all the episodes offered. I was looking for one in particular; in my obsession.for all things Linda Darnell, I got the set because it included "Homeward Borne", in shich she starred. It was filmed, not done live, in 1957, amd was.later released in certain areas to movie theaters.

WABASH AVENUE is one of the few instances.where a star.successfully remade.a film,.this being a remake of her 1943 film, CONEY ISLAND; George Montgomery was her costar there. And speaking of Betty's Million Dollar Legs, it was a publicity still for CI thst became the iconic WW2 ****.

Lol, it seemed funny that you would identify Jerry Stiller as Georve Costanza's father, instead.of Ben Stiller's.

I bought a set of dvds of dozens of Playhouse 90 a couple of years back from an online dealer. Don't know if they were in the public somain, or their legal status. The quality varied from episode to episode, but was fair to average overall.

Let me finally get to the February 2016 Winter Under the Black Stars salute: 2/1: Hattie MacDaniel 2/2: Eddie Rochester Anderson 2/3: Ruby Dee 2/4: Paul Robeson 2/5: Jim Brown 2/6: Juanita Moore. The Essential will be IMITATION OF LIFE (1959). 2/7: Bill Bojangles Robinson 2/8: Butterfly McQueen 2/9: Ossie Davis 2/10: Richard Roundtree 2/11: Ethel Waters 2/12: Cicely Tyson 2/13: Sidney Poitier. The Essential will be NO WAY OUT (1950). 2/14: Dianne Carroll 2/15: Sammy Davis Jr. 2/16: Stepin Fechit 2/17: Woody Strode 2/18: Loiuse Beavers 2/19: Pam Grier 2/20: Dorothy Dandridge. The Essential is CARMEN JONES (1954). 2/21: Rex Ingram 2/22: Kenny Washington 2/23: Josephine Baker 2/24: Juano Hernandez 2/25: Willie Best 2/26: Matthew "Stymie" Beard 2/27: Harry Belafonte. The Essential is ISLAND IN THE SUN (1957) 2/28: Nina Mae McKinney 2/29 (2016 is Leap Year): Fredi Washington

Do you mean you were in the Professor or Little Buddy camp?