darkblue

Truly. Specious reasoning indeed to claim that a person owes his existence to war movies. Another "shaming is better than thinking" acolyte, I guess.

I like the girl wearing glasses.

My choice for best Jesus is Zeffirelli's 'Jesus of Nazareth'. Best-looking Jesus, best movie about Jesus. For me.

While making the film, Brando quipped to someone "all I do is walk around". I believe that it's the town getting carried away with the craziness of the night that mostly bothered critics. Seemed excessively irresponsible. I think Robert Duvall gives the best performance, though Angie Dickinson was fine as well. Rarely mentioned is Jocelyn Brando's almost wordless contribution as Henry Hull's wife. I always liked her in everything she was in. By the way, I think James Fox was far more miscast than Redford.

"Starlet" is a term that was used for pretty, but generally inconsequential, young women who were under contract but were not stars. As opposed to genuine actors, they were hollywood hopefuls at best, and their careers were over before you could say "Pamela Tiffin". The "pretty" part cannot be separated from the "starlet" part.

I knew that it was a box-office disappointment - possibly because Hudson's usually more colorful fluff was coming to the end of its popularity - becoming passé - and he was no longer a box-office draw; possibly because the story is low-key and extra intelligent; possibly because black and white movies were not met with any enthusiasm from movie-goers at that point in history. But I wasn't aware that "the critics hated it". That surprises me. They sure don't hate it anymore.

I don't really get your connection with what James and I were discussing - objections from the "pc crowd" I didn't realize there was any ambiguous sex in 'The Boys in the Band', or that the pc crowd has any problem with that movie.

Yep, the composition on 'Turn Down Day' actually began as a blues-workup novelty song. I don't dislike the poppy tune as much as you, and I kinda like the little sitar flourish in it, but I agree that it's a pretty ordinary mid-60's exercise. The Cyrkle were really quite a lightweight outfit, and the steady decline of success that their singles would encounter was a pretty good barometer of that. I don't think they're anything like Herman's Hermits, as someone else seems to find. I'd say their closer in style to The Association - but with a whole lot less talent.

Even the desperate will try to keep up their illusions in the eyes of others. If people can somehow hang on to a bit of pride, they usually will.

Just because Yoko initially wanted to land Paul doesn't mean that Paul had the bad taste to go for that. So she quickly fell back to landing John, which was a lot easier to do.

Couldn't have been much of a Buddhist. Buddhists do believe in the existence of demons.

Oh yeah, Squeeze is definitely a contender for all-time most popular rock band! Absolutely!

They do overplay 'Guys and Dolls'. Big, splashy, colour-saturated musicals are a favorite with TCM - I think they consider those to be extra "classic". If it were up to me, TCM would be a little less family-friendly in its daytime/primetime orientation. There'd be a boatload of complaints from the old guard if I did the programming.

That would be 'Horrors of the Black Museum' (1959).

I saw a lot of that back in those days (mid 50's-mid 60's) in circumstances where the lads were "forced" (because of pregnancies) to marry girls that they didn't really want to marry. Times have changed. Far fewer marriages now.

He did have something extra special. As for 'The Swimmer', it's my favorite Lancaster movie and, in my view, the best acting of his career.

I used it myself here - saying "Welcome to Obama's America" in a post as a joke (the post I was responding to had nothing whatsoever to do with politics - it may have been about not being able to find spumoni ice cream or something). Somebody took it seriously and reprimanded me.

McKinney was sure in a hell of a lot of movies and tv episodes for a guy like Reynolds is claiming him to be. Clint Eastwood used him eight times. By the way, before McKinney made it in movies, he was a tree surgeon in Beverly Hills. Asked about what Reynolds said of him, he denied it was true. There was nothing sexual about his performance in 'Deliverance' and no one had to pull him off Beatty. Just more of Reynolds' bullsh!t.

Well, that actor's name is Bill McKinney - and he's one of the most menacing actors of all time. A strong man as well - and it shows in the performance he gives. I'm okay with calling Reynolds a bullsh!t artist ('cause he is). The interviews with McKinney in the special features of the DVD, as well as the commentary track by Boorman, do not bear out Reynolds' claim. McKinney and Beatty spent considerable time together during the production, and were thoroughly prepared to get it done in one take. Beatty, understandably, didn't want to do it any more than that. They pulled it off masterfully. Another movie in which McKinney gets to provide shivers from his menacing aura is 1974's 'The Parallax View' - a Warren Beatty 70's paranoia feature.

Umm - unfortunately for Ned, he was too late. He saved Jon Voight (from a forced fellation). Although he probably did save them both from being murdered. I recently added 'Deliverance' to my collection. Did you know that Ned Beatty had never done a movie before? His performance is amazing - the best in the movie, in my opinion. Ironically, he plays the least capable of the four while in real life he was the only one who'd actually canoed or spent time in the woods. It's a perfect movie. I don't believe it could be improved upon if remade. It's thoroughly faithful to the novel by James Dickey (who plays the part of the Sheriff).

When I watched it back in the 90's, for the first time, it affected me similarly. Pretty brutal. It's the suspense of whether or not there's gonna be a burning that is the greatest grip in the movie. Watched it again recently - added it to my collection in fact. Didn't bother me nearly as much this time. Knowing what was gonna happen softened it, and I was able to appreciate the film as a film rather than as a disturbing experience. The performances of Michael Madsen and Steve Buscemi are just outstanding. Madsen in particular will never be separated in the public consciousness from this role, no matter what else he does. He's that good. The DVD commentary is terrific to listen to as well - and Madsen is a part of it.

That is a disgusting little film, I agree. I wrote a comment over at IMDb some years back - it was headed "Cheap, Stark Exercise in Ugliness".

Originally 4 were in the group, but one went into the Coast Guard. Paul Simon didn't write 'Turn Down Day" - it was written by Jack Keller, who also wrote the Connie Francis hit 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool'. However, Paul Simon did write The Cyrkle's first hit, which was 'Red Rubber Ball'. He also wrote another of their minor "hits" called 'I Wish You Could Be Here'. One peculiarity of The Cyrkle's singles output was that every single they released charted progressively lower on the charts each and every time. They started with a #2 (Red Rubber Ball - which reached #1 in Canada), then a #16 (Turn Down Day), then a #59 (Please Don't Ever Leave Me - which did better in Canada, reaching #31), then a #70 (I Wish You Could Be Here - again doing better in Canada, reaching #46), then a #72 (We Had a Good Thing Goin'), then a # 95 (Penny Arcade), then a #112 (Turn of the Century). Their final 2 singles ('Reading Her Paper' and 'Red Chair Fade Away') - both in 1968 - failed to register on the charts. The name of the group - which had been The Rhondells - was changed to The Cyrkle at the suggestion of John Lennon, in keeping with alternative spellings that had begun with The Beatles (and continued with The Byrds) I thought that 'Reading Her Paper' was a lovely, gentle and somewhat baroque composition that deserved a much better fate than to not even chart. I like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVXJIlIbLk

Chick flick vampire movie. Very 80's. Unless you're 15, you're not missing much.

That's one movie that made me feel real, actual anger. I'd never been able to warm up to Holly Hunter in anything she'd done - even when her character was more sympathetic. Even so, I was unprepared for the depth of repugnance I would feel toward her in 'The Piano'.